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CHINA 

THROUGH THE 

STEREOSCOPE 

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A Journey Through the 
Dragon Empire at the 
Time of the Boxer Uprising 

/ SEE POCKET IN BACK COVER \ 

V FOR EIGHT PATENT MAPS ) 

PERSONALLY CONDUCTED BY 

JAMES RICALTON 

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PUBLISHED BY 

UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD 

NEW YORK LONDON 

OTTAWA, KANSAS TORONTO, CANADA 

















THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two CoPiKri Received 


JUL. 31 1902 


Copyright entry 



' ASS CX/KXa No. 






COPY 3. 


Copyright, 1901, by 
UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD 
New York and London 
[Entered at Stationers’ Hall] 


Stereographs copyrighted in the United States 
and foreign countries 


Map System 


Patented in the United States, August 21, 1900 
Patented in Great Britain, March 22, 1900 
Patented in France, March 26, 1900. S. G. D. G. 
Switzerland, + Patent Number 21,211 


Patents applied for in other countries 



C t \ « A 

< C » 

C l L C r 


< C C < C < C < < 

1 < C C C C(CCCC 


All rights reserved 













CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Where Are We Going. 9 

How Are We Going. 11 

How to Use Stereoscopic Photographs. 13 

ITINERARY 

1. Britain’s Rich Mart of the Orient—Hongkong, from the Harbor. 19 

2. Rooking across the Bay to Kowloon and Mainland, from Bowen 

Road, above Hongkong. . 23 

3. Rooking Down the Chukiang River into the Homes of the 400,000 Boat 

Population of Canton, China. 28 

4. A Street of “ Flower Boats,” Places of Amusement and Debauchery, 

Canton, China. 31 

5. Canton, the Vast Metropolis of China—from the Pagoda on the North¬ 

ern Wall.. 35 

6. Panorama Northwest from the City’s Northern Wall, Canton, China., 38 

7. Looking into Shappat-po Street from one of the Nightwatch Bridges, 

Canton, China. 39 

8. Splendor of Chun-Ka-Chie, Ancestral Hall of the Great Chun Family 

of Canton, China. 42 

9. In the Temple of 500 Genii (founded A.D. 500) among its 500 Disciples 

of Buddha, Canton, China. . 45 

10. Examination Hall—Rows of 12,000 Cells—Where the Ku-Yan Trien¬ 

nial Examinations Occur, Canton, China. 51 

11. West End of Shameen Island and Western Suburb of Canton, China. 54 

12. Mission Children, with one little American Girl, Canton, China- 

thousands of such Massacred by “Boxers”. 57 

13. Watching the “ Foreign Devils ”—Gate of the English Bridge Barring 

the Cantonese from the Legations, China. . 60 

14. Dying in the “ Dying-Field,” where Discouraged Poor are allowed 

to come to die, Canton, China . 62 

15. A Chinese Bible Woman—many of these faithful Teachers have suf¬ 

fered Martyrdom. 64 

16. From the Imperial Bank of China (N.) along Whangpoo River, over 

English and American Quarters, Shanghai, China. 73 

17. Looking South into French Quarter and toward the Native City, 

Shanghai, China. 76 
























ITINERARY 


18. 

19- 

20 . 

21 . 


22 . 


23 - 

24. 

25 - 

26. 

27. 

28. 

29. 


30 - 


31- 

32. 

33 - 


34 - 


35 - 

36. 

37 - 

38. 


39 - 


40. 


PAGE 


Rich Native Bazaars on Nankin Road—Principal Chinese Street of 
Shanghai, China. 

Eooking across Nankin Road to a Native Tea-house, Shanghai, China 

Where Shanghai’s Wealthy Natives pass the time—Chinese Tea¬ 
house, China. 

One of China’s most terrible methods of death punishment— 
Shanghai. 

A High Caste Eady’s Dainty “Eily Feet’’—showing method of de¬ 
formity (shoe worn on great toe only), China. 

At the Steamer Eanding just before sailing, Ningpo, China. 

Bridge over the Fung Wha Branch of the Tang River, Ningpo (show¬ 
ing Catholic Church), China. 

Eumber-makers in a Chinese Sawmill, Ningpo, China. 

The Dragon guarding the front of Fukien Guild Hall, Ningpo, China 

Colossal Statue of Buddha in Fuchoo Temple, at Ningpo, China. 

Refinement and Industry for China’s Masses -Girls making embroid¬ 
ery at South Gate Presbyterian Mission School, Shanghai, China.. 

Training of Body, Mind and Soul—Chinese Children at Dumb-bell 
Exercise, South Gate Presbyterian Mission School, Shanghai, China 

“ King of the Beggars’’—The Chief of a Beggar Guild-vain of his 
Excessive Raggedness—Eoong Wah, China. 

A Chain Gang in China—In the Thoroughfare wearing “Cangues,” 
which record their crimes—Soo-chow, China. 

Natives Fishing with Trained Cormorants in the Grand Canal, Soo- 
chow, China. 

The Picturesque Eand of Confucius—Woo Men Bridge and Grand 
Imperial Canal, Soo-chow, China.. 

Tiger Hill Pagoda, the “Eeaning Tower” of Soo-chow (1300 years 
old)—Full view—China. 

Coolies unloading Tea at Hankow, the great Tea Market of Interior 
China. 

View along the Bund, from Municipal Council Building, Hankow, 
Interior China’s greatest Tea Port. 

Travelling in Interior China—our House Boat on a Canal near Kin- 
kow (600 miles inland). 

Paddy Fields and Group of Jeering Natives at Matin (700 miles in¬ 
land), Kiangsi Province, China. 

Paddy Fields, Farm Houses and Patches of Tea, at Matin, Kiangsi 
Province, among the Mountains of Interior China. 

A Genial Official of Interior China—Naval Mandarin (Admiral River 
Fleet), Wife and Daughter—Kinkow, China. 

Huge Stone Figures on the Avenue leading to the “Tombs of the 
Kings,” Nankin, China. 


80 

82 

84 

89 

92 

95 

97 

99 

100 

104 

105 

107 

US 

1x9 

122 

125 

128 

132 

134 

139 

154 

157 

163 

168 


41. 
























ITINERARY 


PAGE 

42. Cultivated Bamboo—a Plantation at Nankin, China. 169 

43. Cheefoo, one of China’s Important Sea-ports—from Signal Tower, 

looking east. 180 

44. Missionary Refugees Fleeing from the “ Boxers,” landing at Chee¬ 

foo, China. .. . 182 

45. From Pilot’s Tower, looking north across the Pei-ho River to North¬ 

west Fort, Taku, China. . 186 

46. Looking down the Pei-ho River toward North Fort and Bay, from 

Northwest Fort, Taku^hina. 189 

47. Burning of Tongku—U. S. S. “Monocacy” at Landing, with Hole 

through Bow made by Chinese Shell—China. 19 1 

48. Horrors of War—Dead Chinese floating in the Pei-ho—showing 

riddled buildings along French Bund, Tien-tsin, China. 196 

49. Native Christians fleeing from the “ Boxers ”—Chinese Refugees be¬ 

ing taken away from Tien-tsin, China. J 98 

50. Chinese Christian Refugees gathered by Father Quilloux into the 

Apostolic Mission during Bombardment of Tien-tsin, China. 200 

51. Strange Medley from many Nations at the Public Water Hydrant— 

during Foreign Occupation—Tien-tsin, China. 20 3 

52. Battlefield of Tien-tsin (during the Battle July 13, 1900), from German 

Club (W.) to West Arsenal, Tien-tsin, China. 207 

53. From German Club (W. S. W.) over Battlefield, during Battle July 

13, 1900—showing Mud Wall and West Arsenal, Tien-tsin, China.. 212 

54. From British Concession (E.) to East Arsenal, over Plain occupied 

by Russians—during Battle July 13, 1900, Tien-tsin, China. 214 

55. From German Club (N. W.) to burning Native City, during progress 

of the Battle July 13, 1900, Tien-tsin, China. 216 

56. Destructive Guns from H. M. S. “Terrible” and distant burning 

City fired by their shells—Bombardment of Tien-tsin, China. 220 

57. Columbia’s noble Soldier boys—as kind-hearted as brave—American 

giving water to wounded Japanese after Battle of Tien-tsin, China 222 

58. From Mud Wall near West Arsenal (N.) to South Gate of Native City, 

where Allies are entering, July 14, 1900, Tien-tsin, China. 223 

59. Chinese who paid War's penalty—at South Gate immediately after 

Allies entered the City—Battle of Tien-tsin, China.. 225 

60. Motley Crowds and Jumbled Huts of Old Tien-tsin—view inside So. 

Gate soon after City was occupied—China. 227 

61. Looking North from South Gate over the burning City, just after 

its Occupation by the Allies, Tien-tsin, China. . 231 

62. Old Tien-tsin, showing terrible destruction caused by bombardment 

and fire, China. 233 

63. Some of China’s Trouble-makers—“Boxer” Prisoners captured and 

brought in by Sixth U. S. Cavalry—Tien-tsin, China. 234 
























ITINERARY 


PAGE 


64. Wheelbarrow Transportation—China’s best and cheapest freighters 

—at the Boat-landing, Tien-tsin, China. 237 

65. Family of the Lower Class “Chowinjg” in their Home, partially 

destroyed during the Siege, Tien-tsin, China.. 240 

66. Reverent but prejudicial Ancestor Worship—one of China’s immense 

Cemeteries, which seriously lessen her productive land area. 243 

67. Li Hung Chang, China’s greatest Viceroy and Diplomat (photo¬ 

graphed in his Yamen, Tien-tsin, China, Sept. 27, 1900 1 . 246 

68. Junk Flotilla on the Pie-ho River—transporting U. S. Army stores 

from Tien-tsin to Pekin, China. 256 

69. West from Ha-ta-men (gate) along huge ancient Wall between Tartar 

and Chinese Pekin—scene of a desperate charge during Siege, 
China.... . 263 

70. North from Ha-ta-men (gate) over Scene of the German Minister 

Baron Ketteler’s murder—now called Ketteler Street, Pekin, 
China. 268 

71. British Legation, scene of heroic fortitude during the terrible 

siege, from barricaded City Wall, Pekin, China. 271 

72. One of the typical “Freight Trains” of China—looking east on 

Legation Street, at Caravan from Tien-tsin —Pekin. 279 

73. Reminders of the terrible eight weeks’ Siege—ruins of French Le¬ 

gation, on Legation Street, Pekin, China. 279 

74. The bullet-scarred American Legation, from barricaded City Wall— 

Forbidden City and Coal Hill in distance—Pekin, China. 281 

75. Ruins around the Legations burned by Chinese—from Chien-men 

(gate) where Capt. Reilly was killed—Pekin, China. 284 

76. Busy Markets in Chinese (Southern! Pekin—on Kaiser Street, be¬ 

tween South Gate and Chien-men (gate), China . . 285 

77. Y. M. C. A. Rooms for Soldiers of the Allied Armies—formerty a 

notorious dive—on the busiest Street of Pekin, China. 287 

78. Mei-shan (Coal Hill) within Imperial City, north to Drum and Bell 

Towers—Ancestral Temples in foreground—Pekin, China. 291 

79. Looking south over the Palaces of the Forbidden City, from Mei-shan 

(Coal Hill), Pekin, China. 293 

80. Count Von Waldersee, escorted by Officers of Allied Armies through 

lines of U. S. Infantry, toward Sacred Gate, Pekin, China. 296 

81. Within the Forbidden City—home of the Empress Dowager—Harmony 

Gate from elevated walk near Canal, Pekin, China. 299 

82. Architectural ideas of the Imperial Chinese—Building in Second 

Court of the Forbidden City, Pekin, China. 301 

83. Home of the World’s most remarkable ruler—entrance of Palace 

occupied by China’s famous Empress Dowager—Forbidden City, 
Pekin, China . 305 

84. Sacred to the “Son of Heaven’’—Grand Throne in the Emperor’s 

Palace, Forbidden City, Pekin, China. 307 























ITINERARY 


PAGE 

85. Typical springless, seatless Chinese Coach—looking toward Coal 

Hill, in Imperial City, Pekin, China. 310 

86. Curious Chinese Architecture—typical Gateway over a Street in the 

Imperial City, Pekin, China. 313 

87. In the Court of the Great Tama Temple—showing Lama Priest turn¬ 

ing Prayer-Wheel, Pekin, China . 315 

88. Lama Priests at the Tung-ho Rung, the Great Lama Temple, Pekin, 

China. 317 

89. Imperial Observatory, one of Pekin’s famous sights—on the Eastern 

Wall—China... 321 

90. Magnificent Bronze Astronomical Instruments, made in 1674 under 

Emperor Kanghi, Imperial Observatory, Pekin, China. 323 

91. A Group of Pekinese Women in the Court of a wealthy Chinese 

House, Pekin, China. 326 

92. A Group of Manchu Women with typical head-dress, of the London 

Mission, Pekin, China. 331 

93. Miss Smith, a Heroine of the Siege, and protected Refugees, among 

the ruins of the London Mission Schools, Pekin, China. 335 

94. Wan-Shou-Shan (Hill of Ten Thousand Ages) Summer Palace of the 

Empress, from Island in Lake Kun-Ming-Hu, near Pekin, China.. 339 

95. Magnificent Marble Bridge at the Imperial Summer Palace, near 

Pekin, China. 341 

96. Grand Porcelain Tower, one of the splendid buildings of the Imperial 

Summer Palace, near Pekin, China. 343 

97. Minister Conger leaving Legation in his Official Chair—always used 

on official calls, Pekin, China. 345 

98. Prince Ching, Commander of City Guard secret friend of Legations 

during Siege—later Peace Commissioner, Pekin, China. 347 

99. The Empress Dowager’s Counsellors in dealings with the Powers— 

Members of the Tsung-li Yamen, Pekin, China. 35 1 II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. 

100. Ministers of Foreign Powers During Negotiations with China- 

leaving Spanish Legation after a sitting—Pekin, China. 354 


LIST OF MAPS 

ALL BOUND IN BOOKLET AT THE 
END OF THIS VOLUME 

I. Hemispheres. 

II. Eastern China. 

III. Hongkong and Vicinity. 

IV. Canton. 

V. Shanghai. 

VI. Taku. 

VII. Tien-tsin. 

VIII. Pekin. 







































WHERE ARE WE GOING ? 


The ancient empires of Egypt, Phoenicia, Assyria, 
Babylon and Greece, all passed away. One venerable 
Contemporary of those old empires alone remains to con¬ 
nect the present with the hoary dawn of history; and this 
solitary antique among the nations of to-day we are 
now to visit through the stereoscope. Exaggerated 
claims to the antiquity of Chinese history, identifies the 
first dynasty, that of Fohi, with Noah of the Bible; but 
more reliable native historians do not attempt to place 
authentic records earlier than noo B. C. This was dur¬ 
ing what is known as the Chow dynasty, covering the 
period when Homer, Hesiod, Zoroaster, David and 
Solomon lived and when the pyramids of Egypt were 
built. At this time Roman history was mythical and 
fabulous, and yet Pa-out-she, a Chinese scholar, had 
completed a dictionary containing forty thousand char¬ 
acters. 

The mariner’s compass was known to the Chinese 
at this early period. History also records that Fong, 
a ruler of this time, built a Tartar city in five days; that 
permanent political institutions were established as early 
as 800 B. C. 

When we remember that one of the oldest and most 
progressive among those ancient empires exists to-dav 
not essentially altered in her customs, laws and institu¬ 
tions, what an interesting study is therein offered to us 1 

We can see Egypt under the Khedive, but not under 
Rameses; we have seen Italy under Victor Emmanuel; 


IO 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


but we cannot see Rome under Julius Caesar, nor Greece 
in the time of Pericles. We know Palestine under the 
Sultan; but we cannot behold Judea under Solomon. 
It is now possible for us to look upon the dreary plains 
of the Euphrates; but we can only read of the splendor 
of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar and the world-encom¬ 
passing Macedonian Empire under Alexander the Great. 
To see life as it existed in any part of the world three 
thousand years ago is a rare privilege. Yet to see China 
is to turn back the wheels of time and gaze into the 
dawn of human history. We delight to stroll through a 
museum of antiquities and look at isolated objects that 
carry us back to former ages. In China, a veritable 
world of antiquities, relatively associated, moral, social, 
literary, political and industrial, are offered for our in¬ 
spection. The word change was not in Pa-out-she’s dic¬ 
tionary, and China under the Manchus is China under 
Chow. 

Nor is it altogether her antiquity that offers so inter¬ 
esting a subject for study; she is at this time a puzzle 
among the nations, and promises to be, in the future, 
a gigantic and mysterious force. During the recent 
Boxer uprising, we have witnessed this oldest of the 
world’s empires, proud of her history and tenacious of 
her time-honored civilization, hurling back the encroach¬ 
ments of modernism. None of the nations of this age 
are so little known—so misunderstood, yet so relent¬ 
lessly assailed; but when she learns her own latent 
strength and how to use it, the aggressive cupidity of the 
Occident may hesitate to assail her. 

It has been my privilege to visit many countries in 
different parts of the world; twice I have wandered over 
portions of the “ Flowery Kingdom,” and I do not hesi¬ 
tate to assure those who are to follow me on this jour- 


HOW ARE WE GOING? 


II 


ney of observation that nowhere over the whole world 
could we see so much of the past which is still in the 
present, and so many differences in conditions of life 
from what we are accustomed to see in our home sur¬ 
roundings. 


How Are We Going? 

In previous journeys I have seen China with my nat¬ 
ural eyes; during this itinerary we shall see, so to speak, 
with our stereoscopic eyes; and having used both these 
media of sightseeing, I wish to state to those not al¬ 
ready familiar with the genuine realism of the stereo¬ 
graph, that its power to produce vivid and permanent 
impressions on the mind is scarcely less than that of 
one’s natural vision; that it gives accuracy in size, pro¬ 
portion, distance and perspective; and, besides these 
things, it gives a vivid and fascinating effect that almost 
equals reality in producing pleasurable sensations and in 
giving a sort of mental emphasis which fixes all impres¬ 
sions. 

The stereograph tells no lies; it is binocular—it gives 
the impression that each eye would receive on the 
ground, affording essentially perfect vision and giving 
the most realistic ocular perception attainable in the 
photographic art. The telescope brings distant objects 
apparently near; the microscope magnifies the appear¬ 
ance of objects; the stereopticon or magic lantern mag¬ 
nifies images that have been produced by monocular 
vision (a single lens)—all more or less deceptive, and 
showing objects only on a single plane, while the stereo¬ 
graph virtually projects solid figures into space before 
us. 

Furthermore, sight is our cleverest sense in the ac¬ 
quisition of knowledge; to see is to know. All princi- 


12 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


pies of instruction are being more and more based on a 
recognition of this truism. Any art, device, or princi¬ 
ple best calculated to bring objects clearly and truthfully 
before the eyes is, therefore, surely the best means of im¬ 
parting instruction. 

If you cannot visit a country and see it as the traveller 
does, do the next best thing and see it through that mir¬ 
acle of realism, the stereograph. To make this possible 
I have spent a year in the land through which you are 
now to accompany me. 

It might be of interest to you to know that the begin¬ 
ning of my itinerary in China follows the conclusion of 
a year spent in the Philippine Islands, which was marked 
by all the vicissitudes and experiences of our flag-plant¬ 
ing in the Orient. When I reached Manila, scarcely had 
the clanking of the anchor chains ceased when all on 
board our ship were startled by the sharp popping of 
Krags and Mausers only a few miles away. This was 
soon after the first conflict between the Americans and 
the insurgents; so that the year following embraced the 
most important events of our war in the Philippines, 
during which time I was at the front, not only in Luzon, 
but also in the southern islands of Panay and Cebu, and 
made during that time nearly nineteen hundred nega¬ 
tives representing war, life and industrial scenes. 

Then I proceeded to China, where I stereographed 
many hundreds of places, though time and space will 
permit us to visit through the stereoscope only a single 
hundred, and these will take us to some of the more 
important treaty ports, some of the interior cities of 
China, and then into the midst of the Boxer uprising, 
or the war of China against the world; and this, it is 
hoped, will stimulate a desire to more fully understand 
this peculiar country and her people. 


HOW TO USE STEREOGRAPHS. 


J 3 


How to Use Stereographs . 

a. Experiment with the sliding-rack which holds the 
stereograph until you find the distance that suits the 
focus of your own eyes. This distance varies greatly 
with different people. 

b. Have a strong, steady light on the stereograph. 
This is often best obtainable by sitting with the back 
toward window or lamp, letting the light fall over one’s 
shoulder on the face of the stereograph. 

c. Hold the stereograph with the hood close against 
the forehead and temples, shutting off entirely all imme¬ 
diate surroundings. The less you are conscious of 
things close about you the more strong will be your 
feeling of actual presence in the scenes you are studying. 

d. Make constant use of the special patented maps in 
the back of this book. First, read the statements in re¬ 
gard to the location on the appropriate maps, of a place 
you are about to see, so as to have already in mind, when 
you look at a given scene, just where you are and what 
is before you. After looking at the scene for the pur¬ 
pose of getting your location and the points of the com¬ 
pass clear, then read the explanatory comments on it. 
You will like to read portions of the text again after 
once looking at the stereograph, and then return to the 
view. Repeated returns to the text may be desirable 
where there are many details to be discovered. But read 
through once the text that bears on the location of each 
stereograph before taking up the stereograph in ques¬ 
tion; in this way you will know just where you are, and 
the feeling of actual presence on the ground will be 
much more real and satisfactory. On the maps you will 
find given the exact location of each successive stand¬ 
point (at the apex of the red V in most cases) and the 
exact range of the view obtained from that standpoint 


14 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


(shown in each case by the space included between the 
spreading arms of the V). The map system is admir¬ 
ably clear and satisfactory, giving an accurate idea of 
the progress of the journey and really making one feel, 
after a little, quite at home among the streets of Can¬ 
ton and Pekin. 

e. Go slowly. Tourists are often reproached for their 
nervously hurried and superficial ways of glancing at 
sights in foreign lands. Travel by means of stereo¬ 
graphs encourages leisurely and thoughtful enjoyment 
of whatever is worth enjoying. You may linger as long 
as you like in any particularly interesting spot, without 
fear of being left behind by train or steamboat. Indeed, 
you may return to the same spot as many times as you 
like without any thought of repeated expense! Herein 
lies one of the chief delights of China-in-stereographs— 
its easy accessibility. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

“ I felt I was right on the spot,” said a man, as he leaned 
back in his chair and took his head from the stereoscope 
in which he had been looking along the crowded wharves 
of Canton. Though one might not at first think so, this 
remark was descriptive of the facts of this man’s experi¬ 
ence. Let us see if we cannot show in a few minutes that 
this is true. 

It is now being recognized that with the proper atten¬ 
tion and the appropriate helps, maps, etc., a person can 
obtain in the stereoscope a definite sense or experience of 
geographical location in that part of the earth he sees rep¬ 
resented before him. Moreover, it is recognized that to 
get this sense of location means that we have gained not 
merely the same visual impressions in all essential respects 
that we would gain if there in body, but also part of the 
very same feelings we would experience there; the only 
difference in the feelings being one of quantity or intensity, 
not of kind. 

But some one objects probably that this man’s experi¬ 
ence in connection with the stereoscope could not have 
been a real experience of being in Canton, because it was 
not the real Canton before him. 

But what would be this man’s object in going as a 
traveller to Canton ? As a traveller he certainly does not 


16 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

go to possess himself of that city’s material buildings and 
streets. No traveller brings any material houses or fields 
back with him. No, the object of the traveller in going so 
far, at the cost of so much time and trouble, is to get cer¬ 
tain experiences of being in China. It is not the land, but 
the experiences he is after. 

This makes it clear, then, that in whatever place he 
stands he is concerned with two kinds of realities. First 
the earth, people, trees, the realities of the physical world; 
second, the states of his consciousness, made up of 
thoughts, emotions, desires, the realities of his mental or 
soul life. The physical realities which are so often thought 
of as the only realities, serve simply as the means of in¬ 
ducing the states of consciousness, the mental reality, the 
end sought. 

Now it will be easier to understand how it is possible for 
us to be dealing with genuine experiences of travel in the 
stereoscope. For we can see that proving there is no real 
Canton before a man in the stereoscope does not prove 
there is no real soul state within him, no genuine experi¬ 
ence of being in Canton. “ In the stereoscope we are 
dealing with realities, but they are the realities of soul 
states , not the realities of outward physical things.” We 
cannot see too clearly, then, that on this stereoscopic tour, 
we may have real experiences of being in China.* 

But to get these experiences in connection with the rep- 

* Send for our booklets, “ Light on Stereographs” and ‘‘The Stereoscope and 
Stereoscopic Photographs,” |by Oliver Wendell Holmes. See article, ‘‘Extraor¬ 
dinary Results from Stereoscopic Photographs,” in the magazine The Stereo¬ 
scopic Photography March, 1902. 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 17 

reservation of a place in the stereoscope, certain conditions 
must be observed. We must look intently and with some 
thought, not only of the location of what is before us, but 
also of what exists, though we do not see it, on our right 
or left or behind us. We certainly could not expect to 
gain a definite consciousness or experience of location in 
any place, unless we knew where that place was and what 
were its surroundings. 

To give people this knowledge in connection with the 
stereograph, a new map system has been devised and pat¬ 
ented. There are eight maps and plans made according to 
this system and found in the back of this book which are 
to be used on our complete China tour. 

Turning to Map No. 1, we find a bird’s-eye view of the 
world in two hemispheres. The position of the Chinese 
Empire is outlined in red on the Eastern Hemisphere, 
showing us its relation to the various land and water por¬ 
tions of the world. Opening now Map No. 2, we find in 
outline the eastern part of China, from French or Indo- 
China on the south to Russian Siberia on the north. Here 
we can get in mind our general route. The first place we 
are to visit is Hongkong, found on the seacoast in the 
most southern part of the Empire. The red line which 
starts from this city and extends toward the north along 
the seacoast, and into the country at several points, indi¬ 
cates the route we are to follow. Noting this route more 
carefully now, from Hongkong we are to proceed inland 
one hundred miles to Canton; returning, we shall then go 
along the coast nearly a thousand miles to Shanghai. 


18 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

From Shanghai we shall take a special trip to Ningpo, 
over one hundred miles south, to Soo-chow, fifty miles 
northeast, and then to Hankow, six hundred miles up the 
Yang-tse-Kiang. From that great inland tea port of 
China, we go one hundred miles south into the country to 
Matin. On our return trip down the Yang-tse-Kiang, we 
stop at Kinkow and Nankin. Reaching the coast again, 
our next stop is at Cheefoo, nearly five hundred miles 
north. After Cheefoo, we proceed directly to the seat of 
war operations of the allied nations against China at 
Taku, Tien-tsin and Pekin. The rectangles in red on this 
Map No. 2 indicate the sections of the country given on a 
larger scale on special maps. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


19 


HONGKONG. 

Let us now turn to the first of the special maps, Map 
No. 3, which covers the territory from Hongkong to Can¬ 
ton. Here we can tell with definiteness where we are to 
stand first in China. Find the island of Hongkong and 
the city of Victoria or of Hongkong on its northern side, 
in the lower right-hand portion of the map. Note the 
number 1, in a circle, both in red, above the island of 
Hongkong. From this encircled number, a zigzag line 
runs to the apex of two red lines which branch toward the 
west, or slightly south of west. We are to stand now at 
the apex of those lines, on board a ship in the harbor of 
Hongkong, and look to that part of the city which the lines 
inclose. 

x. Britain’s Rich Mart of the Orient—Hongkong from 
the Harbor, 

We are on the upper deck of one of the many steamers 
that ride at anchor in the beautiful harbor of Hongkong, 
and there we see before us in the distance, at the base of 
that dark, green mountain side, the city of Victoria, gener¬ 
ally called Hongkong, after the island on which it is situ¬ 
ated. We are not, however, yet in China. We are look¬ 
ing southwest and the mainland lies on our right, distant 
only a mile or two, and which we shall soon see from the 
slope of the mountain in front of us. A little to the left 


20 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


of the highest point of that somber elevation floats the 
English flag, that grand old symbol of our fatherland, on 
which, you know, the sun never sets. Only a small por¬ 
tion of the island is within the range of our vision. To 
our left, the city skirts the base of the rugged mountain 
for several miles ; and should we follow the winding and 
irregular coast line and complete a circuit of the island, it 
would require a journey of over thirty miles; and should 
we ascend that dark green slope by cable tramway or by 
winding shady path, a climb of two thousand feet would 
be rewarded by a panorama scarcely surpassed in the 
whole world. The summit of that mountain island is a 
maze of peaks and dells dotted everywhere with cozy villas 
of the wealthy who find there a cool and healthful retreat 
from the languishing summer heat of the city below. 

But before giving further attention to this city, let us be 
sure we have a definite consciousness of our surroundings 
in this part of the world. Remember we are looking 
somewhat south of west here. Then by reference to the 
maps we can see that the great mass of China lies off to 
our right, stretching away for over two thousand miles. 
Directly before us, six hundred miles distant, is French or 
Indo-China, and further in that direction is Siam and the 
Malay Peninsula, Singapore being nearly fifteen hundred 
miles away. Luzon, the northernmost of the Philippine 
Islands, lies over six hundred miles sharply to our left. 
Back of us is Formosa, about four hundred miles away, 
while Tokio, Japan, is one thousand miles beyond For¬ 
mosa. San Francisco is nearly six thousand miles distant 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


2 I 


behind us and over our left shoulder. Now, with a clearer 
sense of our location in this part of the earth, we will give 
further attention to this place immediately before us. 

Hongkong is a British crown colony and was a “ volun¬ 
tary ” cession from China made sixty years ago, in settle¬ 
ment of trade difficulties between the two countries which 
had extended over a period of two hundred years. It is 
now the most important entrepot of the far East, with a 
native population of two hundred and fifty thousand and 
about twelve thousand Europeans. 

That water front, which you see, is lined with commodi¬ 
ous modern office buildings, granite quays and landing 
stages, around which queer native boats called sampans, 
manned by native women, ply their trade of carrying pas¬ 
sengers from point to point. 

In the center of our field of vision a distant mountain 
peeps over the shoulder of Victoria Peak. It is Mount 
Davis, nearly nine hundred feet high, and around 
its base is a Chinese cemetery. Between Mount Davis and 
the sea, on a gentle slope facing the northeast, thousands 
of little mounds, designated by simple board tablets, indi¬ 
cate the burial place of the victims of the bubonic plague 
which has prevailed for many years in this city. The 
cemetery is not an attractive resort. Neither the friends 
of the victims buried there nor leisure strollers are ever 
seen near the silent hillside; there even the dead menace 
the lives of the living. 

On the roof of this little house directly before us, in 
which John “ makee washee, washee,” we see squatted 


22 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


three coolies in the characteristic position of the lower 
classes, not only of China, but of many other Oriental 
countries. If the classification of men were made on the 
same plan as that of birds by ornithologists, these fellows 
would be styled perchers; for, whether eating, smoking, 
resting, or in social confab, they are always in this couch- 
ant and ungraceful pose. 

We can see three large, new buildings on the quay, fac¬ 
ing the harbor; the farthest of those buildings was a place 
of much importance during the Spanish-American war. 
It is the Cable building, and it was to that place that all 
war dispatches were brought for transmission after the 
cable was cut in the bay of Manila. 

We shall go ashore in a sampan, most likely sculled by a 
Chinese mother with a babe tied at her back. We shall 
land near those same buildings and follow a well-paved 
street toward the mountain side. The second street we 
pass, Queen’s Road, the chief thoroughfare, is almost im¬ 
passable at times, so full is it with darting jinrikishas and 
sedan chairs, borne by chair coolies. We ascend the 
mountain slope along beautiful walks and through 
botanical gardens embowered in every species of tropical 
palm and tree-fern, and past well kept lawns studded with 
bright flower beds, until we have reached an elevation of 
nearly a thousand feet somewhat farther to the left than 
we can see, when we turn about and from our elevated 
viewpoint look back in this direction upon the busiest and 
most beautiful harbor of the Orient. This new position is 
given on the map of Hongkong and vicinity by the two red 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


2 3 


lines that branch north from the island, each having the 
number 2 at its end. 

3 . I/Ooking Across the Bay to Kowloon and Main¬ 
land from Bowen Road, above Hongkong. 

Now we obtain our first sight of the main-land of China, 
but scarcely yet do we see Chinese territory, for all that 
portion of the mainland now within our view is under the 
British flag, England having in recent years leased for a 
period of ninety-nine years (which an Englishman knows 
means forever) a peninsula embracing many square miles 
of territory, and extending many miles beyond those rocky 
mountains. The military and naval defenses of Hong¬ 
kong would be quite insecure unless England held adja¬ 
cent lands on the mainland shore before us. To the right 
and to the left of those bold barren mountains are sheltered 
bays from which a foreign fleet with modern guns could 
hurl monstrous projectiles to the very spot on which we 
stand. Mirs Bay, that memorable retreat of Admiral 
Dewey, when compelled by the enforcement of England’s 
neutrality to leave the port of Hongkong, is only ten miles 
away, just behind those mountains to the right. We are 
now looking a little to the east of north. 

If we now look down to the harbor before us we may 
see, quite to the right and farthest away, the long black 
cargo ship on which we stood when we obtained our first 
view, and a little nearer we see a large white mastless hull 
roofed over and anchored fore and aft; that is a naval re- 


24 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


ceiving ship of the station, to which naval men and officers 
are brought when transfers are to be made. 

A little nearer we see a long, rakish, crouching, de¬ 
moniacal looking craft with a skulking lowness in the wa¬ 
ter. Her appearance betrays her—she is a torpedo boat. In 
the center of our field of vision we see a large white ship 
with three funnels; her lines indicate other purposes than 
the pursuit of commerce. She is plainly a warship. Our 
field of vision embraces only a narrow space across the 
channel; throughout its full length there are seldom fewer 
than fifteen or twenty of these grim arbiters anchored in 
this focus of Oriental commerce, and they are mostly Eng¬ 
lish. What a wonderful country is England! 

Across the harbor immediately before us, and to the 
right of the projecting headland, are situated the city 
and harbor of Kowloon, at which are dry docks that 
will accommodate the largest warships. We can faint¬ 
ly see the docks across that small bay beyond a sharp 
point of land, to the right of the city. It was there 
that several of the Spanish warships destroyed by 
our fleet in Manila Bay were taken for reconstruc¬ 
tion under the supervision of the brave hero of the 
“ Merrimack Lieutenant Hobson. The water front at 
Kowloon is lined with piers to accommodate the largest 
ocean ships. It is out there at Kowloon that all cargoes to 
and from distant ports are loaded and discharged. Vast 
storehouses, or “ godowns ” as they are named in the East, 
to accommodate transshipment, are ranged near the piers. 
It is estimated that the actual trade of the European col- 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 25 

ony, exclusive of the cargoes which pass through this port 
without breaking bulk, is over 100,000,000 pounds per 
annum. Many passenger steamers for Europe and 
America coal and embark passengers from the docks at 
Kowloon; but the boats of the Pacific Mail, the Canadian 
Pacific and most of the great lines for Europe receive and 
discharge their cargoes and embark and debark passengers 
at their anchorage in the harbor, which extends a mile or 
more on either hand in the bay between us and the oppo¬ 
site shore. The harbor front at Kowloon presents a busy 
scene; rail-trucks are constantly thundering back and 
forth between the long piers and the godowns, coolies, in 
long lines, waddling under heavy loads carried on bamboo 
poles, pass to and fro uttering a weird, rhythmical cry 
which they think helps to dispel a consciousness of physical 
burden. At frequent intervals small steam ferry-boats 
ply between Hongkong and Kowloon, carrying first-class 
passengers at five-cent fares and second-class at half that 
amount. I must remind you, however, that the busy com¬ 
mercial port we see across the bay is not the native city of 
Kowloon. What we see is chiefly the result of England’s 
commercial development. A water-front embracing about 
three square miles was here added to the colony of Hong¬ 
kong thirty-five years ago. Before this section was ceded 
to the English, it had been a haunt for smugglers and all 
the lawless rabble around about. A few miles out among 
those low hills a granite bowlder marks the place of the 
surrender of the last of the Taipings. 

The native city of the same name is hidden among the 


26 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

low hills three miles distant and a little to our right. The 
native Kowloon is a typical old Chinese city of low one- 
story buildings with tile roofs and surrounded by a dilapi¬ 
dated brick wall. 

Those mountains in the distance are rocky and barren as 
is frequently the case near the sea-coast; but beyond are 
many fertile and well-cultivated valleys producing rice, 
sugar-cane, sweet potatoes, garden fruits and vegetables. 
In some portions of this peninsula that curious nut or 
fruit, sometimes seen in our markets, called the lichee, is 
abundantly produced. Along that mountain range to the 
left, distinctly visible from positions near us, is a long line 
of excavation that shows the beginning of a railroad that 
is to connect Hongkong and Canton. 

When we looked at Hongkong from the ship your atten¬ 
tion was called to three buildings, one containing the cable 
office; those buildings are again before us, down by the 
harbor. On the left is the Cable building. A little fur¬ 
ther to the left, just to the right of the tree before us, and 
about half way to the Cable building, is St. John’s Prot¬ 
estant Cathedral, a pretty building erected over fifty years 
ago, with a seating capacity for eight hundred. And be¬ 
low us to the left of the tree we see the spire of the Union 
Church, erected two years before the former and seating 
about five hundred people. Looking at European churches 
in the Far East naturally reminds one of schools. Much 
encouragement has been given in that direction in Hong¬ 
kong, and the Chinese inhabitants are quite alive to the im¬ 
portance of education. Nearly nine thousand children are 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 27 

in attendance at the public schools. I once visited a native 
school here. When approaching the schoolhouse I was 
amazed at the great volume of vocal noise proceeding 
from within the schoolroom. On entering I soon learned 
that all the pupils were studying aloud, and very loud. I 
asked the teacher, who spoke intelligible English, if 
Chinese pupils always study in this fashion. He replied 
that “ Chinamen believe study muchee loud remember 
more better.” This is a thought for the teacher who is 
fond of hearing a “ pin drop,” and a plea for the boy who 
isn’t. 

Within a few feet of us we see some of the vegetation on 
the mountain-side, and sections of the occasional pine- 
trees. My native boy supports himself against one as he 
also scans the panorama. I do not now remember whether 
his back presentation was from choice or necessity, because 
sometimes the lower classes can be induced to present their 
backs to the camera when vast sums of money would not 
induce them to face that dire instrument of evil, believing 
that when their faces are photographed a part of their 
identity is forever lost to them, and this becomes a serious 
matter in their ancestral worship. 


28 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


CANTON. 

We have seen the mainland of China from Hongkong. 
We shall return again to the harbor, pass along the water¬ 
front to the left for a half-mile, and board a steamer for 
Canton, distant about seventy-five miles. After landing at 
Canton we shall go a short distance above the landing- 
place to the Imperial Custom House, from the roof of 
which we shall look back down the river over the route 
from Hongkong. 

Let us turn to the special map of Canton, Map No. 4, 
where we find our position and field of vision shown by 
the red lines which start from near the river and branch 
toward the right. The number 3 is found near the apex 
and at the ends of these lines. 

3. Looking down the Chukiang River into the Homes 
of the 400,000 Boat Population of Canton. 

There is the Chukiang or Pearl River leading down to 
Hongkong. We are looking directly east now. Our 
large side-wheel steamer lies still at her dock. Two 
steamers of this class, besides several other boats that 
carry freight and a few passengers, ply daily between 
Canton and Hongkong. T.hese side-wheel boats are of 
European construction and are quite similar to those that 
ply between New York and Albany on the Hudson River. 
They have accommodations for first-class European pas- 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 29 

sengers and a separate accommodation for first-class na¬ 
tive passengers, besides an entire lower deck for the sec¬ 
ond-class Chinese, who are carried between the two ports 
at fifty-cent fares; first-class natives are carried for one 
dollar, while European travellers are charged at the civil¬ 
ized rate of eight dollars for the same short passage. 

We are looking due east, and the water before us is only 
one branch of the Canton or Pearl River. The land on 
the right of the steamer is an island five or six miles long, 
and beyond it is another broad affluent of the Canton 
River. That island on the right bank is densely populated 
and forms an important suburb to the city of Canton, 
which lies on the north bank and extends several miles in 
every direction from our point of view. 

The scene before us is one of the most interesting fea¬ 
tures of the myriad life of China’s greatest commercial 
city. As far as our sight can reach we see boats; these 
boats are homes in which millions of human beings have 
been born, have lived and have died; and in many cases 
without ever having set foot on land. It has been esti¬ 
mated that in these floating homes from two hundred and 
fifty to four hundred thousand lives are daily rising and 
falling with the tide. 

The inhabitants of these floating dwellings are called 
Tankia, which means boat-dwellers; their ancestors were 
also amphibians. They are looked upon as a class below the 
land people, and they have many customs peculiar to them¬ 
selves. Their house-boats range in size from fifteen feet 
to fifty and sixty feet in length. It has been estimated 


30 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

that eighty-five thousand of these boats are about Canton 
and that, of this number, forty thousand are permanently 
located. On many of them pigs and chickens are reared, 
and in many cases when the smallness of the boat does not 
afford deck space for such stock, a box or cage is sus¬ 
pended from the stern to serve as a pig-pen or a chicken- 
coop. This way of securing comparatively free home¬ 
steads has seldom occurred to the poor of other countries. 
For centuries the Chinese have used boats for dwellings, 
and having a free anchorage their building sites cost noth¬ 
ing. A house-boat that will accommodate a moderate- 
sized family can be obtained for twenty dollars. A house 
for twenty dollars and a free site surpass all Western 
residential economics; but for one hundred dollars a boat 
almost luxurious in appointments, according to the Tan- 
kia’s order of life, can be obtained. 

Most of the boats we can see here are small. A thatch 
of palm leaves or a cover of matting over a portion of each 
boat protects the occupants from sun and rain and serves 
as an eating and sleeping place. We speak of limitation 
of space, as things “in a nutshell,” but here in the small 
compass of a fifteen-foot boat there are births, deaths and 
funerals; there are henneries and pig-pens, and even 
flower-gardening, particularly on the larger boats, where 
considerable space in the bow is set apart for flower-pots. 

Sometimes European travellers who wish to make a 
prolonged sojourn in the vicinity of Canton, and do not 
care to pay the high prices charged in the one hotel, hire a 
comfortable house-boat which can be had for one dollar 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 31 

per day. In that case the native owners occupy a small 
space in the bow, where all cooking is done for the trav¬ 
eller without extra cost, with the additional advantage of 
free transportation to any point on the river. 

One naturally wonders how this swarming population 
of river-dwellers is maintained, and the answer is chiefly 
by transporting merchandise and by carrying passengers 
from place to place. In some cases daughters go ashore 
to work in factories as girls do in other countries; but the 
factory girl’s annual income in China would scarcely buy 
an American girl’s hat. 

On that dock between the steamers and the shore you 
see several huge casks; if you were on board the steamer 
you would find many of these filled with water and alive 
with large and beautiful fish for the Hongkong market, 
where they are delivered alive. 

Down the river beyond the steamer and before reaching 
that dark group of buildings we can see several ranges of 
larger boats extending from mid-stream toward the shore 
on the left. Out there we shall see floating dwellings of 
more beautiful construction. From those boats called 
“ flower-boats ” we shall look toward the city, on our left 
here. On the Map No. 4 the red lines connected with the 
number 4 show the relation between our two positions. 

4 . A Street of Flower-boats—Places of Amusement 
and Debauchery, Canton. 

We stand on the upper deck or roof of one of these 
boats and look northward toward the shore and over the 


32 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


city. A range of flower-boats lies between us and the 
shore. These may be called the summer-gardens of Can¬ 
ton. They are often gorgeously furnished within; the 
woodwork is carved; the walls are hung with pictures 
and embroideries; wall mirrors duplicate all objects of 
ornamentation; the furniture is inlaid with mother-of- 
pearl ; flowers, both natural and artificial, furnish an 
abundance of color; and every night these popular resorts 
are filled with seekers after pleasure and recreation. The 
opium smoker with his seductive pipe comes here to dispel 
his cares with this insidious narcotic; the gambler comes 
to these flower-boats to try his fortune at fan-tan or other 
Chinese games, for gambling is one of China’s national 
vices. 

Although the Chinese are an industrious race, they 
often have an excess of leisure, and too much leisure al¬ 
ways creates a desire for a pastime or for pleasure resorts 
—“ An idle brain is the devil’s workshop.” As our idlers 
repair to a saloon or a summer-garden, so the Chinese 
idlers, as well as Chinese professional chance men, come 
to these flower-boats to win at cards, at dominoes, or dice. 
The passion for gambling is universal, and the stereotyped 
invitation “ Buy a chance and get rich,” is heard every¬ 
where. So the gaudy interiors of these floating dens of 
vice are nightly filled with sharpers, with idlers, with 
gamblers and desperate characters. 

Most travellers and tourists who come to Canton seldom 
spend more than two or three days in visiting the various 
places of interest. Many come on the morning steamer 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 33 

and return to Hongkong by the night boat of the same 
day. It is not a desirable place for a long sojourn. 
There is so much that is repellent besides the exorbitant 
prices of poor hotels that a single day may satisfy the 
sightseer; naturally, therefore, there is a set number of 
places to be visited in a limited time, and one of these 
places is the flower-boats. A question one constantly 
hears at the hotel is, “ Have you been to the flower- 
boats ? ” T,hey have a sort of Monte Carlo notoriety that 
makes them an object of interest to all travellers. 

These boats cost from five hundred to a thousand dol¬ 
lars, and are generally owned by the men in charge of 
them. At night these boats are illuminated brilliantly 
with lamps and lanterns, and patrons come and go by 
boats and along those projecting bows. Then they are 
not safe places to visit unless accompanied by a guide; 
but during the day they are vacated except by the owners 
and their families whom we see engaged in their daily 
routine of putting their boats in order for another night’s 
round of feasting, gambling and dissipation. One woman 
is whipping the dust from chair and settee cushions. Two 
girls have spied us and are gazing quizzically at our 
strange manner and appearance. A little beyond, a dame 
with her back toward us is delivering the morning gossip 
to her neighbors on the next boat, while her liege by her 
side, with “ turned-up pantaloons,” is on daily avocations 
bent. 

Beyond the small house-boat two men in characteristic 
crouching pose are plainly watching the “ foreign devils ” 


34 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


and commenting thereon in a foul sarcasm only possible 
among Chinese. We see near the same place a woman 
perched on the roof; we can see another in the distance. 
With us “ Time is money/’ with the Chinese time is of 
little account, but space is money. The top of the flower- 
boat is a place for storage and for clothes-lines, which you 
see are poles. 

Although space is valuable and upper space is free, yet 
the Chinese do not evidently take to “ sky-scrapers,” as 
you can judge from the single story buildings everywhere. 
Pawn shops, however, constitute a curious exception to 
the rule of low buildings, two of which you may see in 
the distance. These pawn shops form landmarks in 
Chinese cities and may be seen at great distances towering 
above all other buildings. 

Just before these flower-boats we have a good example 
of a small house-boat—its shape, its roof, and a projec¬ 
tion over the stern, where, as I have already stated, are 
placed the pig-box and the hen-coop. We have heard of 
countries where the pig is kept in the parlor; but in the 
house-boat space is more valuable. There is not much 
choice, however, for the porcine member in one case has 
more space, in the other better ventilation. 

You see those garments hung out to dry on poles and 
near them, also on poles, objects that might be mistaken 
for sheepskins; they are mackintoshes—rain coats made 
of bamboo leaves; they serve their purpose well and only 
cost from ten to twenty cents each. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 35 

Notice now a short distance over in the city an object 
which in other countries would be taken for a flag-pole, 
with an arrangement resembling the cross trees on a ship’s 
mast. That pole you will see in every city and large town 
in China. It marks the residence of a mandarin, and it is 
often a convenience when travelling in China to know just 
where the mandarin, in a town or village, lives. 

We are here looking almost due north, and by follow¬ 
ing a northerly direction for several miles we shall find 
ourselves next standing on the northern side of the city 
and looking almost directly towards the spot we now oc¬ 
cupy. The red lines starting from the number 5 near the 
top of Map No. 4 and toward the southeast show our posi¬ 
tion and field of vision. 

5 . Canton, the Vast Metropolis of China, from the 
Pagoda on the Northern Wall . 

We are now standing on a low hill on the northern side 
of the city with the city wall just behind us, and looking 
a little east of south toward the Canton River, which we 
see in the distance. The greatest commercial emporium 
of Asia is spread out over the plain before us, extending 
eastward and westward for many miles. That vast hive 
of human life is encompassed by a high brick wall seven 
miles in circumference, and within that wall a million 
human beings are toiling for a livelihood. Almost an 
equal number have outgrown the limits of the ancient wall 
and spread out into the suburbs and across the river. We 
cannot from this distance look into one of the narrow 
busy streets; but this we shall do on our return. 


36 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

Here we must be content to look over that vast urban 
world and reflect. A distant panoramic view of any city 
always leaves much for the imagination, just as when we 
look at the exterior of a single house, the interior life is for 
the imagination. Notice the low one-story brick build¬ 
ings with tile roofs. The brick is not red, but drab or 
gray; no paint can be seen anywhere; very little is used 
in the whole empire. But you notice here that, although 
the Chinese are innocent of the expensive aestheticism of 
paint, they are not ignorant of the use of whitewash. 

We can observe an occasional clump of trees; but no 
high chimneys. We can see no church spires; but there 
are one hundred and twenty temples down in that great 
sea of lowly homes. There are fourteen high schools and 
thirty colleges. Of course, they are not Yales or Ox¬ 
fords, but they are somewhat educational. 

People are carried from place to place through the nar¬ 
row winding streets in sedan-chairs, and it is probably not 
unsafe with respect to truth to say that not one wheeled 
vehicle could be found within the entire range of our 
vision. 

If by some power the real inwardness of all the social 
and industrial life in this panorama could be disclosed to 
us, what a marvelous scene we should behold! There are 
palaces after a fashion; there are hospitals; there are 
arsenals; there are ancestral halls; there are prisons; 
there is the imperial mint; there is the execution ground 
where beheading is done; there are scores of markets, in- 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 37 

eluding a cat-market and a dog-market, where these do¬ 
mestic friends are sold for food. There are seventeen 
thousand people engaged in silk weaving; and not in 
great factories, but in small dingy homes where hand¬ 
made bamboo looms turn out the delicate fabrics with 
which our stores are filled, and those magnificent brocades 
which charm our fancies. There are fifty thousand peo¬ 
ple making cloth; and there are over four thousand shoe¬ 
makers ; there are great numbers of wood-carvers, stone¬ 
cutters and workers in iron, brass, ivory and silver. 

It is a world of ceaseless industry; it is likewise a 
world of vice, as I have already intimated, and has ac¬ 
quired an infamous celebrity for profligacy and corrup¬ 
tion ; it contains the greatest number of the worst speci¬ 
mens that can be found in the empire. A retiring viceroy 
once expressed himself thus about Canton: “ Deceit and 
falsehood prevail everywhere in this city, in all ranks and 
in all places. There is no truth in man, nor honesty in 
woman.” At one time there was an organized band of 
twenty thousand robbers. There are countless tea-houses 
and opium-joints and gambling dens. But we cannot 
gaze longer over this broad panorama of busy industry 
and unspeakable vice. 

We must now turn our attention in the opposite direc¬ 
tion; we shall step upon the wall and look northwest. 
Then we shall have an aspect of the landscape where there 
is no suburb beyond the wall. See the red lines marked 6 
at the top of Map No. 4. 


38 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

6 . Panorama Northwest from the Northern Wall of 
the City, Canton. 

We are at the northern edge of the river plain, from 
which a rolling surface extends to the mountains in the 
distance. We are looking out toward the great heart of 
China. We see a country where only the low land is cul¬ 
tivated and where the hills and mountains are without 
timber except for an occasional clump of trees. With us 
it is usually only the rocky character of the soil which pre¬ 
vents cultivation. In China there is another cause of 
neglected cultivation. It is the vast amount of ground 
occupied by tombs which can never be removed nor dis¬ 
turbed. The hills, both to the right and to the left, are 
old cemeteries. You can see the partially obliterated 
graves, but the ground is sacred for all time. Agriculture 
and ancestral worship know no truce; these are the state 
and church in China. The area of valuable land occupied 
by graves has long been a serious curtailment of agricul¬ 
tural resources. This can be better understood when we 
consider that the venerated graves of ancestry have been 
preserved for thousands of years. 

Down in the little vale below us we can see examples of 
the care with which the Chinaman cultivates his ground. 
Here he is evidently a truck gardener for the great market 
near at hand; you see how carefully the ground is ridged; 
how the streamlet from the hillside is carried around the 
walled compound and along the slope at a proper elevation 
for irrigating his plot of ground; that it is continued 
along the base of the hill to his neighbor beyond, where it 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 39 

again does its work of irrigation, and so down the plain 
in the benevolent perpetuity of Tennyson’s “ Brook.” 

We call the aborigines who built and lived in mounds, 
mound-builders. We might call the Chinese wall-builders. 
They built the greatest wall in the world—a barrier to 
repel the Tartars—and how long before that period they 
were wall-builders we do not know. We know that from 
time to time to the present they have been defending their 
cities by prodigious fortifications; that their homes within 
walled cities are also protected by walls; that even their 
country houses are encompassed in the same way; that 
our missionaries in China imitate the wall-building in¬ 
stinct of the natives and encompass their compounds with 
high, exclusive and defensive walls. Now notice the 
home of that evidently well-to-do gardener—how care¬ 
fully a wall incloses and defends all within; yet it must 
be confessed that these ramparts would scarcely be a pro¬ 
tection against Western thieves. Walls may do for the 
East; but bullets or buckshot are necessary for the West¬ 
ern Tartar. 

Let us now turn about, pass through the heart of the 
great city and look into one of the narrow congested 
thoroughfares. 

7 . Rooking into Shappat-po Street, from one of the 
Nightwatch Bridges, Canton . 

We are standing on a foot-bridge that enables night 
policemen to pass from roof to roof, and are looking down 
into Shappat-po Street, one of the principal business 


40 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


streets, especially for merchants who deal in European 
goods. Shappat-po Street is a curious sounding name in 
our ears because it has not been anglicized. Another 
street near by called Hog Lane is more intelligible to the 
Anglo-Saxon, and would scarcely be a misnomer if ap¬ 
plied to any of the streets, so narrow and dirty are they 
all. 

I am sure it will not diminish your interest in the scene 
before us should I state how difficult it is to photograph 
a dark, narrow, crowded thoroughfare in Canton. Be¬ 
fore finding this street, which is more open and better 
lighted than most streets, I had made three different un¬ 
successful attempts on different days to obtain a street 
scene. I had endeavored to hire policemen to stop, for a 
few moments only, the passing throng, until I could set 
my camera for a time exposure, as all streets are too dark 
for instantaneous work. The policemen said they could 
never stop the crowd. In this place I found an American 
Mission reading-room, from the roof of which I reached 
the bridge on which we stand, where some light penetrates 
into the street below. 

A little farther along we can see another foot-bridge 
over this street, similar to the one on which we stand. 
Policemen nightly patrol these roofs and cross the streets 
on these bridges. The buildings are low and the streets 
are closed by gates or barricades at frequent distances; so 
that thieves can most readily reach the shops and pass 
from place to place along the roofs. A further reason for 
the bridges is that much industrial work is done on the 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 41 

roofs; clothes are here hung out to dry; frames are 
erected everywhere for the coloring and drying of cloth 
and yarn. You will perceive a halt among those passers 
below; they have plainly spied the operator, but do not 
suspect that the eyes of a stereoscopic camera ever look 
down into that closely sheltered chasm. 

Note how the vertical signs are suspended from poles 
extended from roof to roof. These characters have little 
resemblance to our Roman letters; they are read down¬ 
wards. The nearest sign-board on our left gives simply 
the name of the shopkeeper, Kwo Heung. T,he second, 
in the center of the street, gives the owner’s name, Tai 
Chung Loong, followed by words which in English would 
be—Sewing machine manufactured goods. T,he next ver¬ 
tical sign to the right belongs to Tin Wah Gok. Another 
to Wing Fong Lau, who, according to his sign, is a dealer 
in paper fans, panels and decorated pictures. Do you see 
the one horizontal board both in English and Chinese 
which tells us that artificial speech and song have a fas¬ 
cination for the “ heathen Chinee ” ? Here in the very 
heart of this great, strange hive of human life the phono¬ 
graph and graphophone are for sale. 

Should we go down and enter one of those stores, the 
doorway would soon be blocked by men and boys (not 
women, because very few are seen on the streets) who 
would stop and glower at us as we might stop and gaze 
curiously at a wild man from some strange land. The 
shopkeeper would not importune us to buy, neither would 
he attempt to repel the gaping crowd that fills his door- 


42 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

way; he would stare at us himself, smoke his pipe and 
keep his seat in statuesque stolidity and scornful indiffer¬ 
ence, as much as to say: “Not dependent on the patron¬ 
age of ‘ foreign-devils.’ ” Mongolian etiquette is not 
Caucasian etiquette ; dissimilitude is written on every¬ 
thing. 

We have looked at the dingy house-boats and over a 
wilderness of paintless houses, and now, lest I should lead 
you to think that the Chinaman has no appreciation of 
architecture, no love of beauty and no artistic develop¬ 
ment, we will descend, enter a sedan-chair and be carried 
and jostled through lanes and byways for some distance, 
and then enter the court of one of the most beautiful build¬ 
ings in Canton. 

8 . Splendors of Cliun-Ka-Chie, the Ancestral Hall of 
the Great Chun Family of Canton. 

Many believe that nothing has contributed more to the 
vastness and perpetuity of the Chinese Empire than their 
practical recognition of a commandment promulgated 
both by Moses and Confucius, the fifth in the Mosaic 
decalogue: “ Honor thy father and thy mother that thy 
days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God 
giveth thee.” 

According to Confucius, in his “ Filial Piety Classic,” 
“ There are three thousand crimes to which one or the 
other of the five kinds of punishments is attached as a 
penalty, and of those no one is greater than disobedience 
to parents ”; but filial piety in the Chinese cult is very 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


43 


misleading. It is not at all identical with what we look 
upon as children’s obedience and respect for their parents 
in Western countries. The meaning would be better ex¬ 
pressed if the so-called filial piety were termed veneration 
for ancestors, both immediate and remote, which, of 
course, should naturally begin with reverence for parents 
living, j Homage to ancestors antedates Confucius; but 
he has emphasized its importance, and now it may be re¬ 
garded as the religion of the Empire. To honor and com¬ 
memorate the family line, therefore, shrines or temples are 
erected in which memorial tablets are placed to different 
members of the clan or family. This temple or ancestral 
hall before us has been erected, and is maintained by mem¬ 
bers of the Chun Clan, which has existed for some sixty 
generations. The Chun family were the founders and are 
still the proprietors of the Chun-li-Chai, the house name 
of an old medicine firm which has been in existence for a 
thousand years, and of which there are two establishments 
still to be found. This beautiful ancestral temple is a 
shrine at which all members of the Chun Clan, from the 
humblest to the highest, can place their memorial tablets 
for those who have gone before. There are three pa¬ 
vilions in this exquisite temple; in the center one, con¬ 
tributors of two hundred taels have the first privilege. 
The second pavilion is for members who can afford only 
one hundred taels, a third for those who are only able to 
pay forty taels. The walls are of brick, the floors of the 
courts are of granite slabs. The slender columns and the 
massive paneled balustrades are of gray granite. Notice 


44 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


the representations of grape-vines worked out on posts 
and panels. Even more elaborate still are the porcelain 
decorations on the roofs; notice the fantastic designs that 
extend from the ridge of the roof to the eaves; also the 
roof of the arcade running across the court; these are 
all wrought in richly colored porcelains. Considerable 
time could be spent in examining the wonderful carving 
and grotesque decorative art in this charming structure, 
which is considered the finest in this part of the Empire. 
By a handful of “ cash ” (a small copper coin, seventeen 
of which make one cent) I induced those three juvenile 
Celestials to stand where you see them; but do not 
imagine that these boys are the only life near us; just out 
of sight at our left, the court is well filled with gaping on¬ 
lookers, who were kept back with great difficulty. The 
gate of the temple had to be closed to exclude the crowd 
on the street. They are eager to see, but afraid to pose. 
You cannot conjecture what I regarded as the rarest per¬ 
sonal phenomenon that obtained in connection with that 
little trio; it was something seen everywhere in Japan, 
but seldom in a Chinese crowd or individual; I mean that 
I caught once on one of those faces a genuine, roguish, 
first-class, fun-loving smile. I was afraid the boy lacked 
“ filial piety.” The Japanese are a laughing people; but 
the Chinese countenance is cold, expressionless, and as 
immobile as that of the eternal Sphinx. The ready laugh 
usually denotes a genial nature, which is often lacking in 
the Chinese people. The boy and little child are a familiar 
feature of domestic life in China. Everywhere one may 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 45 

see very small boys and girls carrying and caring for 
younger brothers and sisters; in this respect they are cer¬ 
tainly not only filial, but fraternal and useful. 

We have had a single glance into one court of this beau¬ 
tiful Ancestral Hall of Chun-Ka-Chie and will now, fol¬ 
lowed by a hundred gazing onlookers, turn out into the 
narrow street again and wend our way toward the west 
to another temple, old and dingy, but which constitutes 
one of the chief attractions to all who visit Canton. 

9 . In the Temple of Five Hundred Genii (.founded 
A . D. 500 ), Canton . 

This temple was founded 500 A. D., or about fourteen 
hundred years ago, and is called the Flowery Forest Mon¬ 
astery, or Temple of Five Hundred Genii. At the early 
date of its establishment its surroundings probably made 
the former rural name appropriate. The exterior consists 
of a series of low, grimy buildings quite unattractive in 
appearance; so we lose little in confining ourselves to this 
view within where you can see a phalanx of the celebrated 
so-called Genii from which the temple takes the latter 
name. These really are statues representing noteworthy 
disciples of Buddha; they are familiarly called Josses or 
idols. 

This being a Buddhistic shrine, let me, while we look at 
these odd figures, tell you briefly who Buddha was; you 
may easily know much more about this famous character 
than I do myself, yet it may be otherwise with some. I 
have visited many of the most noted Buddhistic temples 


46 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

in India, Burmah and Ceylon, and have often been sur¬ 
prised to find how much error exists with reference to 
Buddhism. For instance, many do not know that there 
are more Buddhists than Christians; that about one-third 
of the population of the world are Buddhists; that 
Buddhism is numerically the religion of the world; that 
two-thirds of the population of China are followers of 
Gautama, or Buddha. Yet till the middle of this century 
there was nothing but vague notion and conjecture in 
Europe or America respecting the nature and origin of 
this world religion. There are over four hundred million 
disciples of the wonderful philosophy taught by the so- 
styled Buddha. There are eminent scholars who doubt 
that such a person ever existed, and believe that Buddha 
was only a metaphorical figment; but Oriental authorities 
have no doubt as to the historical reality of a personal 
Buddha. They give the time and place of his birth and 
many incidents of his life with the utmost particularity. 
You say, What statues are these? They are not statues of 
Buddha, but statues of men who have been worthy dis¬ 
ciples of him. Many are inclined to laugh at these Josses 
or so-called idols, and suppose the Chinese followers of 
Buddha worship them; some of the more ignorant may 
do so; but intelligent followers do not worship these 
statues. 

You see small sticks, called Joss-sticks, in those pots; 
these are burned before the statues, and this naturally 
leads one to believe this is idol worship. Buddhists offer 
flowers and oil and make reverence before the statues of 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 47 

Buddha, his relics, and the monuments containing them; 
yes, these things are done and offered as before stated, but 
not in the spirit of an idolater. We do the same with the 
graves and statues of our honored dead, and we do not 
call it idolatry. 

The object of the statue is to recall the example of him 
who taught the way that leads to deliverance. We see 
essentially the same thing in our Christian religion; great 
and worthy men in the church have been canonized and 
are called saints. We know how the mother of our Sa¬ 
vior and his disciples are worshiped because they were 
near to Christ. In the same way, these statues represent¬ 
ing noteworthy examples of Buddhism are honored by the 
followers of that great teacher, and the honor shown in 
some cases may resemble worship. T.hey are intended, 
however, only to remind the disciple of those who have 
pointed the way to Nirvana, as they call a state of deliver¬ 
ance from the ills of the present life. 

More interesting even than these figures, however, are 
the teachings of Buddha, the tenets and principles of life 
that have won the faith and following of more than a third 
of the human race, a full account of which would require 
volumes; but here I can only mention a few cardinal 
points in his life and teachings, taken from a carefully 
compiled Buddhist catechism: 

(1) Buddha was not a God, but a man born at Kapilavastu, one 
hundred miles northeast of Benares, in India, 623 B. C. 

(2) Buddha is not his real name, but the name of a condition or 
state of mind; it means enlightened, or he who has the per- 


4 8 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


feet wisdom. His royal name was Siddartha; Gautama or 
Gotama, His family name. He was Prince of Kapilavastu. 
His father was King Suddhodana; his mother, Queen Maya, 
who ruled over the Sakyas, an Aryan tribe. 

(3) In form Buddha was a man: but internally not like other 
men. That is to say, in mental and moral qualities he ex¬ 
celled all other men of his own or subsequent times. 

(4) Buddha was born and reared in a splendid palace, and when 
he was but a child he seemed to understand all arts and 
sciences, almost without study; but he did not become a 
Buddha in his splendid palace; he saw the vanity and suffer¬ 
ings of human life and, in order to discover the cause of them 
and how to escape from them, he left his beautiful palaces, 
his beloved wife and only son, and retired to the solitude of 
the jungle, where he spent several years in meditation and 
fasting. At one time he was at the point of death from star¬ 
vation; after years of struggle he decided that the higher 
knowledge could never be attained by fasting or penance. He 
took food, repaired to an asvattha tree and determined not to 
leave the spot till he attained Buddhaship. Just before the 
dawn of the next day, the light of supreme knowledge was 
revealed to him and he saw at once the cause of all human 
suffering and the means of escape. The cause, in a single 
word, he ascribed to ignorance. 

(5) Of things that cause sorrow, he gives: 

Birth, growth, decay, illness, death, separation from things 
we love, hating what cannot be avoided, craving for what can¬ 
not be obtained. 

As a means of escape from these sorrows, he gives what he 
has called the Noble Eight-fold Path. The parts of this path 
are: 

(1) Right Belief; (2) Right Thought; (3) Right Speech; 
(4) Right Doctrine; (5) Right Means of Living; (6) Right 
Endeavor; (7) Right Memory; (8) Right Meditation. The 


china through the stereoscope. 


49 

tnan who follows these will be free from sorrow and reach 
salvation (Nirvana). 

Buddha has summed up his whole religion in one 
verse: 

“ To cease from all sin, 

To get virtue, 

To cleanse one’s own heart, 

This is the religion of the Buddhists.” 

T.he following are five precepts imposed on the laity, 
in general: 

(1) I observe the precept to abstain from destroying the life of 
any being. 

(2) I observe the precept to refrain from stealing. 

(3) I observe the precept to abstain from unlawful sexual inter¬ 
course. 

(4) I observe the precept to abstain from falsehood. 

(5) I observe the precept to abstain from using intoxicating 
liquors and drugs that tend to procrastination (stupefy). 

This is a brief list of precepts for the laity. Other pre¬ 
cepts may be voluntarily added to this, and a special list 
is required of the priests. 

You say, how about transmigration or rebirth—is not 
that one of the peculiarities of their belief? Yes, the 
Buddhist believes, according to Alcott’s interpretation of 
their philosophy, that “ The unsatisfied desire for things 
that belong to the state of personal existence in the ma¬ 
terial world causes us to be reborn. This unquenched 


50 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

thirst for physical existence is a force, and has a creative 
power in itself, so strong that it draws the being back into 
mundane life. It is in reconciliation with science, since it 
is the doctrine of cause and effect. Science teaches that 
man is the result of a law of development, from an imper¬ 
fect and a lower to a higher and a perfect condition which 
is called evolution.” 

Now, with this brief resume of some salient features of 
this world-wide philosophy, we will go on with our in¬ 
spection of this line of figures. You see that these statues 
represent Mongolianized types of Buddha as represented 
in India; they have the drooping, looped ears; they all 
have the sitting posture; their heads are shaved after the 
fashion of Buddhist priests the world over; they wear the 
flowing, loose robe of cotton, dyed yellow; they have 
Chinese shoes; no two are in the same pose. Sometimes 
I think the great Buddha must have been lazy; I have 
scarcely, if ever, seen a statue in any way typical of him 
that was not in a sitting position and did not represent 
him as suspiciously obese. These are certainly a good- 
natured lot of worthies, and some of them must be guilty 
of telling a good story, for, from one end of the line to the 
other, they wear a pleasant smile. I told you at the An¬ 
cestral Hall that a smile is a rare phenomenon in China, 
and I cannot help entertaining a mild suspicion that some 
slight consanguinity exists between the grinning boy at 
the former place and these sacerdotal figures. 

The interior of this temple is quadrangular, and every 
side of the square is flanked by double rows of figures, 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 51 

five hundred in all, and all blackened with the smoke of in¬ 
cense that has been curling up before them for centuries. 

But we have stopped here for considerable time; let us 
betake ourselves hence to a great national institution, one 
of another type. See the red lines marked io near the 
right-hand portion of Map No. 4. 

10. Examination Hall—Rows of Twelve Thousand 
Cells, where the Ku-Yan Triennial Examinations 
are held, Canton . 

You will scarcely think it possible that those low, shed¬ 
like structures, hardly more imposing in appearance than 
the cattle-pens in some city stockyards, are the halls in 
which applicants for examination for degrees that nearly 
correspond with our college degrees of Bachelor of Arts 
and Master of Arts are held. Yes, once in three years 
learned examiners come from Pekin to test here the liter¬ 
ary merit of those who aim to fill government offices or 
to obtain honorary degrees. The government of China 
has encouraged the higher education of the few by dis¬ 
pensing state offices and honors only to scholars, and the 
distribution is based on this system of elaborate exami¬ 
nations. As far as it goes it is an equitable system of 
civil service; for the poorest may rise to the highest 
rank next to the Emperor. China is the only country in 
the world in which titles of honor for learning are higher 
and more lucrative than those conferred on military offi¬ 
cials. The greatest general is outranked by a Doctor of 
Laws. T,he preparation for these triennial examinations 


52 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

is very unlike our preparation for a degree in college; it 
consists largely in a cramming with obsolete Confucian 
classics. The applicant most likely to secure a degree 
is the one who has memorized and can best quote the four 
sacred books and the five classics of Confucius. Four de¬ 
grees are conferred. Examinations for the first degree 
are held in provincial towns throughout the Empire; for 
the second, in each capital of the eighteen provinces. 
Those for the third are held in Pekin; the final examina¬ 
tion gives the successful candidate a membership in 
the Imperial Academy. Every male, without respect to 
age or position, is eligible, and should a degree be obtained, 
even though no government appointment be the result, 
the possessor is not only honored in his community, but 
enjoys an immunity from the baser penalties of the law, 
such as bamboo flagellations, which are inflicted for many 
trivial offenses. The examinations are very rigorous and 
often only a very small number out of the thousands of 
applicants carry away the honors of a degree. 

Women are not eligible in these examinations; indeed, 
they can hardly be considered eligible to any education 
whatever, as immemorial usage has placed them on a 
lamentable plane of inferiority, as is exemplified by the 
prevalence of female infanticide. 

The grounds of this Examination Hall cover about 
twenty acres and contain accommodation for twelve thou¬ 
sand competitors. We entered through a gate at the far¬ 
ther end of this causeway, and we are now standing on 
the upper floor of a building which contains apartments 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 53 

for two chiefs and ten junior examiners; also for the 
Viceroy and the Governor of the Province, whose pres¬ 
ence is required during the examinations. The examiners 
who are sent from Pekin are received with every mark of 
honor and ceremony. We are here looking southeast 
over one portion of the ground covered by the examina¬ 
tion cells or pens. You will notice the low, narrow brick 
structures with half-roofs sloping toward the entrance 
side, with a narrow alley or lane between them; these 
long, shed-like buildings are partitioned off into spaces 
five feet six inches deep, three feet eight inches broad and 
six feet high. Each cell, when occupied, is securely closed 
in front by a strong wooden grating. In these solid brick 
quarters the candidate is confined for two whole days and 
nights, during which time he is to complete his essay or 
poem. From a tower built for the purpose, a close watch 
is maintained over the whole area, and the utmost pre¬ 
caution is taken to prevent students from smuggling into 
their cells any available item of literature. These build¬ 
ings and the whole surroundings have a cheerless and 
dilapidated aspect which we can hardly discern here. You 
will notice, on the end of each range of cells, characters 
designating the number of the range and the cells in¬ 
cluded. You can see also the source of the water supply 
for the twelve thousand feverish and anxious competitors 
that are locked in those close, hot cells for two days and 
two nights; I mean the cisterns with stone curbs that ex¬ 
tend along the space between the causeway and the build¬ 
ings. I need not tell you that the two Oriental specimens 


54 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


below us, with bare heads and poorly shod feet and stiffly 
akimboed arms are not defeated candidates for literary 
honors; they are but common coolies who, as you can 
readily see, impose on art when they pose for “ cash.” 
I wonder if you have noticed while looking upon this 
scene that trees are deciduous about Canton? This be¬ 
comes an interesting fact when I remind you that we are 
here just within the tropics, Canton being only a few miles 
below the Tropic of Cancer, and that frost seldom occurs 
here. The last snowfall, about seventy years ago, threw 
the inhabitants into superstitious consternation. 

We will depart from this place where the Literati are 
made, return to the busy river life, engage a sampan, 
which will take us out into the stream, where we board a 
large coasting steamer at anchor a short distance off the 
European Settlement. 

Our position and field of vision are given by the lines 
connected with the number n on the lower left-hand cor¬ 
ner of the Canton map. 

n. West End of Shameen, an Artificial Island which 
Comprises the European Colony of Canton. 

Here we are looking slightly north of west, toward the 
west end of an artificial island, built up of sand and called 
Shameen (sand). This island extends east and west, 
parallel with the mainland, from which it is separated by 
a narrow canal. It is about half a mile long, comprises 
the European Settlement, and is connected with the native 
city by two bridges. It is a beautiful place, as we shall 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 55 

discover when we go ashore by those trees along the wall. 
Among the trees yonder you can see the west end of a row 
of European houses that extends the full length of the 
island; many of them are much more imposing than those 
we see; some are four stories in height and surrounded 
by fine shrubbery and flower-gardens. In this line of 
buildings are all the consulates, where Li Hung Chang 
occasionally called during his official term in Canton. I 
witnessed one of these formal calls; it was marked by 
what we would look upon as semi-barbaric pomp; Earl 
Li was carried in his state-chair, followed by a motley 
retinue of soldiers, musicians, standard-bearers and a few 
horsemen on miserable and ill-caparisoned ponies. The 
whole proceeding seemed somewhat ludicrous and child¬ 
ish. 

Again we see the conspicuous pawnshop looming 
above the other buildings, as we did when we looked over 
the city from the flower-boats. You may see by the Bund 
at the end of the row of trees a low building, on piles; it 
is a boathouse, in which the Europeans keep their pleasure 
boats. In all the Orient Europeans indulge in their home 
sports and pastimes; they have the race-course, the boat 
club, the tennis court, etc. In that building you will find 
the most up-to-date row-boats and the long, slender rac¬ 
ing shells. Lying between us and the shore is another 
assemblage of house-boats; and here we obtain a better 
view of their appearance. They are short and broad, and 
the occupants are sheltered by a thatch of palm-leaves. 
At first glance one might think these boat people meant 


56 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

to tell us they were not the river pirates, which are so 
troublesome on some parts of the river. I am sure I have 
seen, during the war, both in the Philippines and in China, 
less dignified truce emblems than those we see here, dis¬ 
played by humble non-combatants craving protection of 
the enemy. You will observe here, again, to use a Celti¬ 
cism, that most of the boats are manned by women. In 
the small sampan one woman sculls and another rows 
with a single oar, while a third, sheltered by a prodigious 
bamboo hat, carries a child on her back, supported in the 
usual way by a strong cloth, which leaves the mother’s 
hands free for manual work of any kind. These boats are 
all called sampans when used for carrying passengers, and 
whenever a European approaches that walk by the shore 
a number of them will at once dart toward him, vociferat¬ 
ing : “ Want sampan ? ” “ Have sampan ? ” in good Eng¬ 
lish; but one soon learns on entering a boat that these 
syncopated sentences constitute their whole stock of our 
language. 

Before leaving this place I will direct your attention to 
only one other feature; it is the color and character of the 
water in the Pearl River. In physiography, considerable 
importance is always attached to the character of the 
water in great rivers, whether clear or turbid; whether 
wholesome for drinking and cooking purposes or whether 
malarious (whatever that may mean) and fever-produc¬ 
ing. I have among my collection of objects from foreign 
countries, bottles of water from the Jordan River, the 
Dead Sea, the Nile, the Amazon and the Yang-tse-Kiang. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 57 

These samples, when shaken up, show the amount of tur¬ 
bidity, and when allowed to settle the relative amount of 
sediment in those bodies of water. Rivers often take their 
name from the appearance of their water, as the Hoang 
Ho (or Yellow River) from the pronounced yellow color 
of its water; Missouri (Mud River) from its muddy as¬ 
pect ; but you will feel sure that the river before us is 
not named Pearl River after the pearly aspect of its wa¬ 
ters, for you can distinctly see the yellowish muddy ap¬ 
pearance and how the reflections are diminished thereby; 
yet it does not seem to be unwholesome, and is much used 
both for cooking and drinking. 

We will call that little sampan and be landed about two 
hundred yards to the right of what we see here, on the 
wall beneath that row of beautiful trees, and look back 
toward the river to Hongkong again. Our position is 
given on the map by the lines marked 12. 

12. Mission Children, with One I,ittle American Girl, 
on “Respondentia Walk,” in the European Settle¬ 
ment, Canton. 

We are now in the European Settlement, on the walk by 
the water, looking eastward, down the river, with a group 
of mission children gathered under the shade of a range 
of stately banyan-trees. This island is only about three 
hundred yards in width, separated from the city of Canton 
by a narrow canal congested with every style of small 
craft. It comprises chiefly the English and French con¬ 
cessions, and is considered one of the most beautiful and 


58 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

healthful foreign settlements in the Far East. The con¬ 
sulates and the homes of foreigners are all located on the 
Shameen. The whole island is a bower of beauty; the 
rows of fine modern buildings are flanked by magnificent 
banyan-trees, such as you see here on the river-front. 
There are beautiful flower-gardens, tennis-courts, cycle 
paths and avenues of palms; and all the feathered tribes 
of the neighborhood seem to appreciate European condi¬ 
tions and protection; these beautiful trees are all alive 
with birds of brilliant plumage and melodious with bird¬ 
songs. This particular promenade has a most euphonious 
name; it is called “ Respondentia Walk.” But perhaps 
most interesting of all is this group of pretty and well- 
dressed Chinese girls, who have been brought by their de¬ 
voted American lady teacher from the other side of the 
river. The little party filled a sampan and landed on the 
Shameen bright and early, because I had promised them 
one of their pictures. They are children of the better 
class, well dressed and tidy and happy in expectation of 
receiving a picture. The missionary influence on these 
children is marvelous; they have no superstitious dread 
of foreigners or cameras; they have been taught self-re¬ 
spect, and to respect foreigners; they are girls, and girls 
in China, you must know, when they are fortunate enough 
to escape infanticide, have but meager consideration, and 
they respond most touchingly to the love bestowed upon 
them by their affectionate teachers. It is worth while 
noticing how beautifully they are attired, in silken gar¬ 
ments, how carefully the hair is arranged after their fash- 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 59 

ion, smooth and glossy. Notice also the one American 
child on the end of the stone seat, and the difference in 
features between the Caucasian and the Mongolian types; 
the stiff, straight, black hair of the latter, with oblique 
eyes, flat nose and rather poor facial lines generally, and 
the soft, flaxen ringlets that float about the prominent 
forehead of the former, with mouth and chin that are 
modeled on Hogarth lines of beauty. 

There appears to be the promise of a smile on the face 
of the girl next the river; a scarce article in China, as al¬ 
ready mentioned. A few of them carry handkerchiefs—a 
missionary innovation, no doubt. Their garments are not 
ungraceful, with their capacious sleeves and a simple cord 
at the neck, instead of a stiff starched collar that enforces 
awkwardness of head movement; note also that at least 
one girl has her hair knotted on the side of the head, some¬ 
thing that is quite common with small girls in China. 
This bevy of Christianized little Orientals seemed much 
attached to their teacher, and clung to her skirts and fin¬ 
gers as confiding children do in Western lands. Howmany, 
such as these, have been ruthlessly sacrificed during the 
Boxer uprising! I have seen children just as innocent 
and attractive as those composing this little group, dead 
in the streets of Tien-tsin after the siege, and floating in 
the Pei-ho to be devoured by dogs. 

These little Christian girls will now return to their boat 
down there by the wall, recross the great river and tell 
to their parents the strange things they have seen in the 
foreign settlement. And we will take an opposite direc- 


6o 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


tion, to our left, to a bridge that connects this foreign set¬ 
tlement with the native city. See the short lines marked 
13 on the map. 

13. Watching the “Foreign Devils.”—Gate of the Eng¬ 
lish Bridge, barring the Cantonese from the Le¬ 
gations, Canton. 

Here we have a perfect example of the stupid, sullen, 
gazing crowd that assembles instantly wherever a for¬ 
eigner halts for a moment; and this is not peculiar to 
Canton, but to every part of the country. We are stand¬ 
ing on the English bridge with our back to the island, atid 
this strong iron gate is a barrier to prevent the natives 
from entering the foreign settlement. It is closed se¬ 
curely at night, and during the day is guarded closely by 
native police, who permit Europeans to enter the native 
city and duly authorized Chinese to enter the foreign 
quarters. The street along which this crowd is passing 
faces the canal over which we stand, and runs parallel 
with the island of Shameen and the river. I had, up to 
this moment, been photographing the busy scene on the 
canal from the bridge on which we stand; so the crowd in 
a twinkling surged up to the gate to view the operation. 
Knowing that any appearance of deliberately making a 
picture of this gaping horde would scatter them precipi¬ 
tately beyond reach, I focus for the proper distance while 
the camera is aimed in another direction, swing instantly 
on the tripod, expose and return to the original position, 
without arousing their suspicion. T.his I repeat several 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 61 

times for duplicate views without provoking a smile. 
Look over this melange of faces and see how many smiles 
you will discover. It is a facial mosaic of sullenness, 
coldness and cruelty—a study for the physiognomist. 
There are none of the upper class in this group; a few 
wear caps, indicating a position above the majority, who 
are bareheaded coolies; there are a few boys; but, as 
usual, no women. We can see dimly, across the narrow 
street, a drug-shop with a modern lamp suspended from 
the ceiling, and shelves of bottles on two sides of the room 
which has its whole front thrown open to the street. 
This shop is considerably patronized by the Europeans, 
and usually some one in it can be found who can speak 
a few words of English. The Chinese, like some of our 
own people, have great faith in medicinal properties. 
They advertise and issue pamphlets setting forth the cure- 
all principles of their discoveries and preparations, and 
undoubtedly do a flourishing business in an empire where 
from fifty to seventy-five per cent, of the people are il¬ 
literate. 

Once I was taken by my guide into a first-class native 
pharmacy, where the proprietor presented me with a half- 
dozen small sample bottles of a preparation said to be 
wonderfully efficacious in curing every form of disease. 
I can vouch for its powerful odor, but not for its curative 
virtues; I can vouch furthermore for the prohibitive 
duties put upon it in our own country, for while the six 
small vials were valueless to me and to everybody, the 
custom-house appraiser in New York, ignorant of the 


6 2 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


contents of the tiny bottles, called them medical prepara¬ 
tions and taxed me one dollar and fifty cents duty. 
Where ignorance is profitable it is folly to be wise. 

You will not fail to notice that Scott’s Codfish man, 
notwithstanding his piscatory impedimenta, has found 
his way to Canton, as he has to most parts of the world, 
and, without doubt, he has brought with him a supply 
of the universal emulsion. Many medicines from the 
West are found in most of the native pharmacies. 

How strange we must appear to these fellows! Their 
eyes are still fixed upon us, and they never weary of 
looking at us. We are ready for a change of scene, how¬ 
ever, and so will leave them behind the gate and stroll 
down the river to a place near the steamboat-landing 
called the “ Dying-place.” 

14. Dying in the “ Dying-field,” where Discouraged 
Poor are Allowed to Come and Die, Canton. 

Dying-places are ordinarily in homes or in hospitals, 
but this poor fellow has neither a home nor a hospital in 
which to die. We are here in a vacant space near the 
river—a sort of a common littered with refuse and scav¬ 
enged by starving dogs. It has been named the Dying- 
place, because poor, starving, miserable outcasts and 
homeless sick, homeless poor, homeless misery of every 
form come here to die. The world scarcely can present 
a more sad and depressing spectacle than this field of 
suicides; I say suicides, because many that come here 
come to voluntarily give up the struggle for existence and 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 63 

to die by sheer will force through a slow starvation. They 
may be enfeebled by lingering disease; they may be un¬ 
able to find employment; they may be professional va¬ 
grants; they come from different parts of the city and 
sometimes from the country round about. They are 
friendless; they are passed unnoticed by a poor and in¬ 
adequate hospital service; they become utterly discour¬ 
aged and hopeless and choose to die. Their fellow na¬ 
tives pass and repass without noticing them or thought 
of bestowing aid or alms, and here it is not expected; 
they have passed beyond the pale of charity; it is the 
last ditch; they are here to die, not to receive alms, and 
no one thinks of bestowing them. The pitiable specimen 
before us is near the end—too near to heed the usually 
dreaded camera. I attempted to catch a view of others, 
who, having a trifle more vitality left, crawled away on 
hands and knees. His glassy, fixed gaze tells how soon 
his long, hard struggle will be over; how soon even the 
grimy rags that cover his nakedness will be unnecessary. 
With a stone for his pillow, a sack for his garment, with¬ 
out food or friends, an uncoffined grave will soon be his; 
he has begged a fellow mortal for work, but it was re¬ 
fused him. Would that the vast numbers who squander 
extravagantly and needlessly unearned wealth could wit¬ 
ness the innumerable instances like this—of existence so 
full of suffering that death is welcome. This far-gone 
case of destitution and misery is not the only one in this 
last retreat of human agony; you see another in the dis¬ 
tance, probably a new arrival, as he yet has strength to 


64 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

sit erect. I have been several times to this haunt of 
agony and have always found several sitting or lying in 
different parts of the ground. When death ends their 
sufferings they often remain several days before the tardy 
authorities remove the body, and when removed it is 
borne to an unknown grave in the potter’s field. Prob¬ 
ably you do not care to tarry longer before this harrow¬ 
ing scene in the “ Dying-place.” It is the darkest and 
the saddest, and we can find a brighter scene. Go with 
me to the Shameen, to the home of a faithful missionary, 
and there we can see a different face, a countenance il¬ 
luminated by Christian “ Nirvana,” a Chinese Bible- 
woman. 

15. A Chinese Bible-woman—Many of these Faithful 
Teachers Have Suffered Martyrdom. 

You cannot fail to note the maternal thoughtfulness 
of this face, the intelligence, the kindliness. Buddhistic 
asceticism has left her; almost the Mongolian obliquity 
of eyes has deserted her since Christian light entered her 
mind and Christian love her heart. She has been lifted 
from the low level of her sex among her own people to 
the level of European culture and refinement, and that 
by missionary influence. Her adopted Christian religion 
permits her to smile, which she can do charmingly when 
not posing for a picture; it also permits her to shake 
hands Western fashion, on an equality with European 
men and women, which she does gracefully and modest- 


China through the stereoscope. 65 

ly. Her new religion has removed her superstitious fear 
of the camera, and she is pleased, even anxious, to have 
her picture taken. What a change is wrought in these 
people by Christian influence ! In China women are 
slaves and playthings. Wives and daughters are treated 
as animals. Their education is practically forbidden; so¬ 
cially they are ostracised; they do not appear in the 
streets nor at public functions, and I have been told that 
a Chinese gentleman is supposed to turn his back when 
one of the opposite sex passes on the street. Under these 
circumstances how much emancipation means to Chinese 
women! Can we wonder that the law of love and equal¬ 
ity has transformed the countenance of this Bible-wom- 
an! A man, in China, may even kill his wife with im¬ 
punity, provided he obtains the sanction of the mother 
(his mother-in-law). Can we wonder, either, that the 
prayer of the Chinese woman who is a Buddhist and be¬ 
lieves in transmigration, is often that in the future exist¬ 
ence she may be a man ? It would appear from views ex¬ 
pressed by the great founder of the Indian religion that 
his teachings did little to elevate the low state of women 
in China; for he refers to them in words which might 
afford grains of comfort to the misogynist and the hen¬ 
pecked husband. Here are his words: “A woman’s 
body has many evil things in it; at birth her parents are 
not happy; rearing her is ‘ without taste ’ (distasteful); 
her heart fears men; she must rise early and late, and 
be very busy; she can never eat before others; her father 
and mother begrudge the money spent on her wedding; 


66 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


she must leave father and mother; she fears her husband 
and has times of travail; if her husband curse her she 
is not permitted to get angry (talk back); in youth her 
father and mother rule; in middle life her husband; in old 
age she is at the beck and call of her grandchildren.” 

This Bible-woman is seated on the veranda of the 
home of Mr. and Mrs. Nelson, located in the Shameen. 
These devoted workers in the field of the foreign mission 
were evidently much interested in this woman, and spared 
no effort to enable me to secure views of native types, 
who under their Christian influence had come to think of 
foreigners in a reasonable way. Bible-women perform 
a special work in the mission field. Mr. Nelson explained 
to me the difficulty of reaching Chinese homes; only men 
can go to the services when general meetings are held, 
for it is not considered proper in China for women to 
assemble with men, or even for young women and ladies 
of the better class to be seen on the street. In order, 
therefore, that the homes may be reached and mothers 
and daughters taught to forsake their idolatrous ways, 
elderly native Christian women are chosen and specially 
trained and educated for this work. Elderly women are 
chosen because they will be tolerated and respected when 
young women would be insulted. When trained for this 
special work they are called Bible-women. This Bible- 
woman is fifty-three years of age; her name is Mak; she 
belongs to the middle class; is a widow, and had an only 
son who died of the plague three years ago. The son 
had been converted to the Christian religion some time 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 67 

before he was stricken with the dreadful malady. On 
his death bed his faith in his new found “ Nirvana ” was 
so firm and strong as to turn his mother, who had never 
been in a Christian church, to the same source of conso¬ 
lation and hope. She applied to Christian women to 
learn about Jesus; then she applied for admission to the 
Woman’s School of the American Board. She was ad¬ 
mitted; but she could neither read nor write. She at 
once set to work to learn the Chinese characters; she did 
not ask for aid, but supported herself by selling needles, 
thread, yarn, etc. She made rapid progress in reading 
and in Gospel knowledge. Mr. Nelson says it is a com¬ 
mon thing to see her with her Testament in hand going 
out from the school to sit at some home and tell the 
“ Story.” Her education necessary for the best work is 
not yet complete, but while now doing a good work 
she is still engaged in educating herself. She is very 
correct in her deportment, and, to show how quick she 
is to observe, Mr. Nelson tells that when she first en¬ 
tered their foreign built house she remarked: “ Your re¬ 
ligion is better than the Chinese religions; you are even 
allowed to move your chair about and sit where you 
please; while in a Chinese house chairs are not to be 
moved from their places against the walls.” These women 
are paid not more than two dollars and a half a month, 
barely enough for food and clothing. In reference to 
their value and efficiency in the mission field, I give Mr. 
Nelson’s exact words in a letter to me: “One cannot 
overestimate the amount of good done in China by a 


68 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


Bible-woman, and there are many doing work which far 
outshines that of their sisters in this country (America). 
It can be said of many of these humble workers what 
the Lord said of Mary—‘ She hath done what she 
could.’ ” 

We will now be compelled to take leave of Canton; 
and I regret that we cannot visit more places in this 
quaint old city. China is a great empire, and we must 
travel northward; should you desire to make further ex¬ 
ploration in this great city on the Pearl River, many 
other stereographed places may be had of Underwood 
& Underwood that will enable you to return and visit 
again this great emporium of the East. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


69 


SHANGHAI. 

You have not forgotten that great side-wheel steamer 
that lay within our first panorama overlooking the river 
at Canton; we now go on board of her and in a few hours 
we shall be landed back in Hongkong, our starting- 
place. From Hongkong we shall go northward over a 
treacherous sea that is the terror of navigators, the China 
Sea, and through the Formosa Channel to Shanghai, al¬ 
most a thousand miles north. But what will it cost, do 
you say? Well, that depends on your purse, or maybe 
on your fancy or on your economics; maybe it depends 
on your bringing up. If you have but recently quit your 
mother’s apron-strings or have been accustomed to a 
nice bed from which you had to lay away the lovely pil¬ 
low-shams every night, why you must go first class, by 
the French Mail or the P. & O., which will cost you about 
fifty dollars. If you are a graduate from the school of hard 
experience you can go third class on any of the lines ply¬ 
ing between the two ports for about fifteen dollars. A11 
intermediate passage, comfortable for those not disturbed 
by three days of plain living, may be secured for twenty- 
five dollars. So, then, circumstances being a dictator, 
let us decide and take one of the many boats that leave 
Hongkong and touch at Shanghai. But why do I say 
that our route lies over a part of the ocean that is the 


70 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

terror of navigators ? Simply because at certain seasons 
disastrous tornadoes occur on that sea and in the For¬ 
mosa Channel. The channel is not very wide, and for 
that reason it is particularly dangerous during typhoons; 
but we shall pass through in the early spring and 
typhoons prevail mostly in midsummer. Therefore, we 
have nothing to dread. In three days we shall be in 
Shanghai. In the meantime, on our way, I must tell you 
something about that city, and when we arrive we shall 
find an elevated position as we did at Canton, from which 
we can get a general view. If we turn to Map No. 2, 
the map of “ Eastern China,” we find the route line in 
red which shows our course from Canton to Shanghai. 

Far out at sea, before entering the estuary of the 
great Yang-tse-Kiang, every voyager is struck by the dis¬ 
coloration of the water. If countless giants of the deep 
had been stirring up an entire sea-bottom of yellow 
ocher, the water would not exhibit a more turbid yellow. 
This discoloration continues far north through what is 
known as the Yellow Sea, and is due to the vast amount 
of yellow deposit from the two great rivers, the Yang-tse- 
Kiang and the Hoang Ho. The map of China is fre¬ 
quently drawn on so small a scale that the location of 
the city of Shanghai appears to be on the sea-coast; but 
by the sailing course, when land is first sighted, we are 
yet forty miles from the city. When we first enter the 
estuary of the Yang-tse-Kiang we can but indistinctly 
discover a low lying land at a great distance on the 
horizon. After a sail of nearly twenty miles up this 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 71 

broad Amazon-like river, we reach the mouth of the 
Wusung River, where all the great ocean liners anchor 
to debark passengers for Shanghai. The city is yet 
twelve miles distant along this river and is reached by 
steam launches or by railway. No mountains or high 
lands are anywhere in sight. The Yang-tse, at the mouth 
of the Wusung, is like a broad muddy lake, and in the 
direction of its course from the west, the horizon is a 
meeting of sky and water, as out at sea. The shore is a 
low, fertile,, limitless plain. As we ascend the Wusung, 
one-story, tile-roofed, gray-brick buildings appear, with 
evidences of excellent cultivation everywhere. I have 
said that the great ocean liners anchor at the mouth of the 
Wusung; yet nearly all large coasting steamers ascend 
the river and discharge cargo at the docks in Shanghai; 
even light-draught warships anchor in the river before 
the city. 

Consider then that we have arrived in one of these 
coasting steamers. The first thing that requires atten¬ 
tion is our baggage. There are a few cabs out on the 
street, and an ample supply of the jaunty little man-carts 
called jinrikishas, or “ rikishas.” These are for passen¬ 
gers. For luggage, a droll array of wheelbarrows is in 
waiting—wheelbarrows advanced to a state of utility and 
capacity unknown in the Western world. Our luggage 
on the wheelbarrow and ourselves mounted on a dashing, 
coolie-propelled “ rikisha,” we are off for a hotel in the 
European quarter of the city. As we pass along we are 
amazed at the evidences of up-to-date conditions—well- 


72 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


paved streets, magnificent modern buildings, street 
lamps, electric lights, public gardens with music-stands. 
We can scarcely realize we are in the land of the China¬ 
man. But for a panorama, that we may get the general 
view of the city which I promised you, we will ascend 
to the roof of the Imperial Bank of China and look north¬ 
ward over the street along which we came from the land¬ 
ing-place. 

First, though, let us turn to Map 5, a map of the old 
city of Shanghai, and the English, French and American 
settlements. The city, we see, is situated on a bend in 
the Wusung, or, as it is often called here, the Whangpoo 
Fiver. At this point we find the river flowing in from 
the south and then turning to the northeast to the 
Yang-tse-Kiang, from which we have come. The foreign 
settlements are located on the west and north bank of 
the river. The old Chinese city, surrounded by a wall, 
lies just south of the foreign settlements. The outline of 
its wall is shown on the lower portion of the map. Our 
steamship wharves are found on the northern bank of 
the river. Following the river shore to the Soochow 
Creek, and then southward along the Bund or Yangtsze 
road, we come to the Imperial Bank, where we are to 
stand first in Shanghai. The red lines connected with 
the number 16, which branch toward the north from 
this point, show what our field of vision is to be. Ac¬ 
cording to these lines we should have the Whangpoo 
River on our right and part of the row of buildings front¬ 
ing the river on our left. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


73 


16. From the Imperial Bank of China ( N .) along 
Whangpoo River, over the English and American 
Quarters, Shanghai. 

There is the busy Whangpoo to our right. It is a 
half-mile in width here and turns first toward the north¬ 
east, then again to the north; so that its confluence with 
the Yang-tse-Kiang and the anchorage of the large ocean 
vessels lies directly north of us in line with the direction 
of our vision and twelve miles distant. On our arrival 
we landed about a half-mile farther down the stream, to 
the right of the farthest building we can see. In our 
“ rikishas ” and with our wheelbarrows laden with lug¬ 
gage we came along a street a short distance in the rear 
of those far-away buildings; then, along the street before 
us, which is the center of the English quarter of the 
European settlement. The American quarter begins at 
the bend in the river and extends down stream farther 
than we can see. The French quarter, which we shall 
see from our next position, lies behind us and extends 
southward to the walls of the native city. 

Our more distant surroundings are considerably 
changed from what they were at Hongkong. Pekin is 
now about six hundred miles directly in front of us; the 
homes of millions of Chinese lie off to our left, while the 
island empire of Japan lies directly to our right. 

You need scarcely be told that there is little in this 
scene immediately before us that is typical of China; the 
buildings are not Chinese; the well-paved streets lined 
with shade-trees, and the green lawns near the river, in 


74 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

the distance, are not Chinese; just beyond, at the end 
of that promenade next the water, you see a small, round 
dome that is just within a paling that surrounds beauti¬ 
ful public gardens; they are not Chinese; those tall posts 
bearing myriad wires that span the streets tell of a busy, 
ceaseless, commercial enterprise that is not Chinese. 
There are other poles in the distance, poles to bear the 
emblems of patriotism; off in the American quarter we 
can see three flags in the breeze; they are a half-mile 
away, but I imagine I can see the stars and stripes; they 
indeed are not Chinese. Those tall chimneys off in the 
American quarter symbolize modern manufacturing in¬ 
dustries that cannot be Chinese; those dismasted clipper- 
hulls in the river are not junks, but old “ have-beens ” re¬ 
fitted to receive cargoes of opium, which, owing to heavy 
duties, is not landed but held in these hulls for reship¬ 
ment; neither are these Chinese; so you must see that 
on the river-front, at least, little can be seen to tell you 
we are in China or in even the Orient. A few things, 
however, are not quite familiar to Western eyes—the 
sampans and house-boats are huddled along the water¬ 
front and around the landing-stages; the “ rikishas ” are 
bounding along the street below us, drawn by Chinese 
coolies or “ rikisha-men.” This jinrikisha mode of loco¬ 
motion has become one of the institutions of the East. 
You see one of them below us bowling along at a lively 
gait with a European gentleman on the seat; you may see 
others waiting for customers. They are everywhere; at 
railway stations, at boat-landings, at churches on Sunday, 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 75 

standing before hotels and shops; they take the place of 
the cab, the tramway and the trolley; indeed, in many 
respects they are more convenient and much less expen¬ 
sive than the cab. Their speed is about the same as 
that of an ordinary horse-carriage, while they will carry 
one to any part of the city for five cents, or, by the day, 
at ten cents an hour. The “ rikisha-men ” have wonder¬ 
ful endurance and maintain a constant run; but they are 
said to be short-lived. 

The post and cable offices are on this street, to our left, 
between us and the public gardens; the Custom-house, 
the banks and most of the principal offices are here also. 
You would like to know whether European Shanghai is 
confined to this street along the river? By no means. 
You may travel westward or away from the river for a 
mile and still be within a densely populous city; but only 
a few streets away from the front will you find modern 
buildings; beyond this, although still within the Euro¬ 
pean quarter, you will find the buildings and population 
largely Chinese. For, with business instincts, the na¬ 
tives are not slow to locate in the European portions 
of every city. Later we shall go to see a street in the 
Chinese portion of European Shanghai. In this city we 
have the best opportunity possible of comparing and 
contrasting the East and the West, Chinese civilization 
with European; but before making further comparison 
we will change our position to the tower of the Custom¬ 
house, which is a little behind the large building beyond 
the trees on our left. From that point we shall look in 


76 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

the opposite direction, southward, and up the river to¬ 
ward the native city. 

On the map of Shanghai, Map No. 5, the red lines 
which start from the Custom-house, just north of our 
first position, and branch toward the southeast to the map 
margin, give our next field of vision. The number 17 is 
connected with these lines. 

X7. booking South into the French Quarter and to¬ 
ward the Native City, Shanghai. 

Now we have the river on our left. We are looking 
nearly south. The native city lies in the distance before 
us, and many hundred miles in that direction is Formosa 
and the Philippine Islands. A short distance in front of 
us we can see the place we have just come from. 

That fine building on the right-hand side of the street 
is the Imperial Bank of China, and we looked from that 
dormer window in this direction toward the north. In 
that first outlook over the city we saw flag-poles; in this 
direction we see others. I think we can see the English 
flag on the first one and the French red, white and blue 
on the signal staff by the black ball. 

I have alluded to the suitableness of Shanghai for a 
comparison between Chinese and European civilization; 
this comparison you could make better should I take you 
through the native city, for it is considered a typical Chi¬ 
nese city; but I am afraid you will have to judge in a 
measure from what you have seen of Canton and from 
what you will see later of other cities and be satisfied with 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 77 

this distant view of the native city. I entered it several 
times for the purpose or getting a representative view and 
as often returned in despair. There is no accessible point 
of elevation over the city for a panorama; there is no 
street with light and space enough to enable one to ob¬ 
tain a view. It is a wilderness of low, one-story build¬ 
ings with weather-blackened tile roofs, surrounded by 
five miles of old crenulated brick wall, and is supposed 
to contain about a million inhabitants. Within it is trav¬ 
ersed by lanes or streets which might better be termed 
fetid tunnels seething with filth and teeming with miser¬ 
able and vicious-looking humanity. Odors are suffo¬ 
cating, and the eyes can find nothing attractive or beauti¬ 
ful to rest upon; squalor, indigence, misery, slush, stench, 
depravity, dilapidation, decay prevail everywhere. One 
almost fears to enter a place of so many repugnant scenes 
and hurries away after a brief glance. The saying that 
“ distance lends enchantment ” will answer for the native 
city of Shanghai; therefore, you will, I hope, be satisfied 
to view the dim outline of it by those long, square struc¬ 
tures near the white space far away and in line with that 
signal staff which bears the French flag and marks the 
beginning of the French quarter of the city. In greatest 
possible contrast there lies directly before us a continua¬ 
tion of the Bund in the European city, where all is bustle 
and activity; the streets are broad, well macadamized and 
lined with beautiful trees. The houses are surrounded 
by gardens filled with fragrant shrubs and flowers. The 
river before the native city is a chaos of junks and sam- 


78 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


pans; here, out in the stream are many fine coasting 
steamers from all ports of the Empire, and farther up you 
see lying at the wharf stately, modern steamers that 
ply on the Yang-tse or down the coast to Ningpo. The 
suburbs of European Shanghai are dotted with magnifi¬ 
cent villas. Both banks of the Wusung are lined with 
factories and ship-yards. There are churches, libraries, 
theaters, clubs and race-courses; there are dances and 
dinner parties. All the comforts and luxuries of Western 
life are to be found side by side with what I have men¬ 
tioned within the walls of the native city. The contrast 
is marvelous in our eyes. Yet stranger still is the fact 
that, though the Chinese note the contrast, they are, with 
few exceptions, happy in their own way. They live in 
the present, guided by the past; with them the present 
and the past are wedded, and a divorcement of the two 
is wonderfully slow. In this case a little leaven will 
scarcely “ leaven the whole lump.” It will require every 
influence for a great period of time; it will require the 
missionary seconded by the locomotive and possibly by 
“ Krupps,” and this for many generations. We can see 
the French settlement commencing at the signal-pole 
and continuing on to the wall of the native city, showing 
all the concomitants of Western progress. Just notice 
those jaunty wide-awake little steam launches by the 
landing-stages side by side with the sampans. There is 
a comparison by itself; you may notice at the same time 
that those sampans are quite dissimilar in model to those 
we saw in Canton. In this direction we see again the 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 79 

promenade along which pedestrians stroll to enjoy the 
river breeze in hot summer weather; and the same street 
life, the “ rikishas,” some scudding along with an occu¬ 
pant and others waiting in the shade of those trees; but 
here we also see the indispensable wheelbarrow doing 
transport service. Could you tell by those little docks 
or landing-steps that extend along the bank of the river 
as far as we can see that there is a tide at Shanghai ? They 
are made for a rise and fall of several feet, and this is to 
accommodate the tides. 

Do you remember that when we were at Hong¬ 
kong I told you that a building for storing goods 
is called a “ godown ” in the East? Up the river, in 
the French section by those white river-boats, you can 
see a range of large godowns. When I returned from 
the north of China I was obliged to store my luggage in 
those godowns until I had complied with the tedious 
Custom-house requirements. While looking in this di¬ 
rection permit me to remind you that in a few days we 
shall make a trip from Shanghai to Ningpo, and when 
we go we shall take that first large white steamer lying 
on the hither side of the godowns. Have you noticed 
another opium clipper in this outlook? If that great 
hull were filled with opium at ten dollars per pound, a 
moderate wholesale price, it would be worth a risky, 
piratical “ hold-up.” 

We have obtained a general view of European Shang¬ 
hai along the river-front; have looked toward the French 
settlement, in which the streets have French names. We 


8o 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


have seen the American settlement, where the principal 
street is called Broadway and the leading hotel the Astor 
House; and now, as I promised to show you a street 
back from the river, a street in which, while in the Euro¬ 
pean section, the shops and inhabitants are altogether 
Chinese, we will leave our elevated view-point over the 
Custom-house and enter Nankin Road, a cross-street 
which leads from the Bund through the heart of the 
English settlement. 

18. Rich Native Bazaars on Nankin Road, Principal 
Chinese Street in the English Settlement, Shang¬ 
hai. 

Here we are looking nearly eastward and toward the 
Bund in a street which, although filled with Chinamen 
and lined with Chinese shops, is plainly not in a typical 
Chinese city; the streets are broad, well macadamized 
and clean, very unlike the narrow, filthy lanes seen in any 
really Chinese city. The sidewalks are broad and well 
flagged; those poles and wires again give a Western 
aspect. Those chimneys in the distance to the right 
plainly tell that we have not gone far into the native 
quarter to gain a glimpse of the Chinese portion of the 
settlement; yet it shows again how, aligned side by side, 
the East and the West are slow to assimilate. 

There is one feature, however, about this street which 
gives more evidence of assimilation; it leads out to the 
most fashionable suburbs and to the race-course, and 
on Sundays and during the cool afternoon hours of week- 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


8l 


days it is filled with stylish modern vehicles, many of 
which are occupied and owned by wealthy Chinese, in¬ 
cluding the “ upper-ten-dom ” of Chinese ladies, elegant¬ 
ly attired, richly bejeweled and coiffured and painted. 
That these Chinese drive out in European carriages, 
that they attend the races, are among the hopeful signs 
that there is a trifling infiltration of occidentalism. 

Here, again, is the “ rikisha,” showing its inward con¬ 
struction and suggesting a stunted survival of the “ One- 
hoss Shay.” Standing nearest us is one of England’s 
Indian soldiers who aspires to live in art as a man of let¬ 
ters and has probably succeeded beyond his hopes when he 
halts for a moment before the camera. Notice his cos¬ 
tume, his khaki suit, his curious cap, his heavy shoes, and 
especially his leggings; they are such as are worn by all 
his Majesty’s native troops in India, not buttoned nor 
laced at the side, but consisting of a continuous piece of 
cloth wrapped from the foot upward to the knee and fas¬ 
tened. Many English officers and men have adopted this 
style of legging. A noteworthy physical feature of near¬ 
ly all East Indian types is a deficiency of calves; but 
that cannot be regarded as an intellectual disparagement 
if it be true according to anthropologists that all human 
development is headwards; it is quite easy to believe on 
general principles that the less calf the more brain. Not¬ 
withstanding this headward development theory, I am 
rather suspicious of the literary attainments of this Hin¬ 
doo, as real scholars are not always fond of disporting 
literature. 


82 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


It is quite plain that here, as usual, the people are 
watching the operator; but the picture-making process 
is not altogether strange to them. There are at least 
five or six well-equipped photographic galleries in this 
street, all belonging to Chinamen and well supplied with 
the latest appurtenances of the art. 

We will pass along this street and obtain a view of a 
typical China tea-house. 

ig. Looking across Nankin Road to a Native Tea¬ 
house, Shanghai. 

We can readily see we are still on the wide and well- 
kept street of the European quarter, but the building 
opposite is Chinese except the upper half-roof, which is 
covered with corrugated iron, an entirely foreign prod¬ 
uct. It is a matter of commercial interest to see into 
what general use this corrugated iron has come, not 
only in the coast towns in China, but in our newly ac¬ 
quired islands in the East, where it constitutes a large 
part of the building material; indeed, in Manila, I de¬ 
cided on different occasions that it was useless to make 
panoramic views looking over central portions of the city 
because it was one monotonous characterless glare of 
corrugated iron. The universal Chinese roofing is the 
dingy tile. It is the upper part of the building across 
the way which is the tea-house. The ground floor is oc¬ 
cupied by different shops with their fronts widely open 
to the street, and the native proprietors are standing in 
the doorway to see what is attracting the attention of 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 83 

those outside. You will note that most of the persons in 
this gathering are of the better class—merchants, clerks, 
servants—many of them wearing caps which generally 
indicates a rank above the coolie, who is the most menial 
type of the East. A few have come out upon the bal¬ 
cony to witness what is taking place on the street. No¬ 
tice that the rail on that balcony has turned balusters, 
which tells us that they use the lathe. Notice, too, that 
there is some elaborate carving in wood on the panels of 
the wall. 

The tea-house is a national institution in China; they 
are found in every city and town and village, and even 
in country places by the wayside, where they consist 
often of a shed or a simple shelter of thatch or matting. 
It may be said that they take the place of the beer saloon 
of the Western world. Comparisons may be odious, but 
in studying a people or a nation one is compelled to 
make them, and since reaching Shanghai most of the 
comparisons have been against the Chinaman; but in 
the matter of the respective national resorts, as the tea¬ 
house versus the beer-saloon, a comparison is scarcely 
admissible, because the frequenters of the tea-house are 
people of the highest respectability, and I cannot say so 
much in reference to patrons of the beer-saloon. 

To see ourselves as others see us is a moral impossi¬ 
bility, and could we do so it would scarcely mend matters, 
as the ethical vision of the second person would probably 
be no better than that of the first; but it is curious to 
reflect on what would be the impressions of a Chinese 


84 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

gentleman who should for a first time pass through an 
American city or a single street of an average American 
town and examine the character of our national resort, 
the beer-saloon—what they drink and how they act 
therein, the numerical relation between the bakery and 
the beer-shop; the unaccountable antics and bestiality of 
alcoholic drunkenness; the suffering, the wretchedness, 
the crime, the starvation arising therefrom. He might 
at the same time see a frequenter of this national resort 
come staggering to the door and in drunken stupor and 
maudlin profanity point his finger of scorn at some poor 
humble, industrious tea-drinking Chinaman passing by. 
His first impression surely would be, “ Is this Western 
civilization ? ” 

I need not describe the beer-saloon; it is well known; 
but it will be interesting to inspect the tea-house. First, 
though, note the native policeman in regulation garb; 
his feet, his arms and his head are all in a position that 
clearly betrays a consciousness of authority over his fel¬ 
lows about him. Just at the right-hand side of that front 
we will enter and ascend to the room above, where we 
can see the interior of the Chinese national resort. 

20. Interior of a Tea-house, the Chinese National 
Resort, Shanghai. 

Seated on one of these black stools we are permitted 
to look around; if you spy any drunken men about do 
not fail to call my attention, because, while I have been 
many times in these tea-houses, I have never yet seen 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


85 


any in such a condition. A tea-house usually consists of 
two large rooms furnished with many small tables and 
square stools, as you see here. The rooms are deco¬ 
rated with handsome mirrors, rich carving in wood, and 
elegant painted wall-screens. You see the tops of these 
tables are of mottled marble; the frame-work and the 
stools are of rich black wood. The rooms are lighted 
by large lanterns of glass set in wooden frames, which 
you can see suspended from the ceiling. There is a fine 
French-plate mirror just behind that little fellow ad¬ 
vancing with a plate of sweetmeats. In the rear of this 
room there is a large kitchen where professional cooks, 
noted for their cleanliness, are employed in making all 
sorts of pastry. A peculiar feature of these kitchens is 
the large stock of boiling water kept on hand and sold at 
two cash a kettleful—two cash being about one-eighth of 
a cent. This is a rather clever bit of economy where 
fuel is quite expensive, and, some time, perhaps, stands 
for the sale of hot water may become a paying business 
in America when the exigencies of vastly increased popu¬ 
lation compel a more grinding economy. As guests en¬ 
ter and seat themselves at these tables, trays of sweet¬ 
meats and fruits of many sorts are placed on the tables 
occupied. Small cups of tea, well made but never strong 
as it is taken in Western countries, are also placed before 
the guests. When the temperate, harmless beverage is 
finished, guests, the occasional guests, are expected to 
leave and give place to others; but the man of leisure 
may be expected to spend his excess of time here in tea- 


86 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


inspired sociality with friends and neighbors. To in¬ 
crease the hilarity proprietors often engage vocalists and 
professional story-tellers and reciters who sing and relate 
and recite all day long. Smaller rooms are connected 
with these places in which those addicted to the opium 
habit can retire to inhale the fumes of that seductive 
alkaloid. But, you will say, is not the opium habit as 
pernicious in its effects as that of alcohol? In a word I 
would answer, No. I think the two habits do not admit 
of comparison. Old men are found here who, between 
their pipes and occasional cups of tea, pass away many 
weary hours. All classes are found here; but not both 
sexes. It is not considered proper for females to fre¬ 
quent the tea-houses. Public thoroughfares are natural¬ 
ly chosen for tea-rooms; they are, therefore, not infre¬ 
quently found adjoining temples and yamens. This, 
then, is what I have called the national resort of China, 
with seldom anything more than tea for a beverage and 
sweetmeats and the pipe as indulgences. You see these 
men at the tables; the trays of cakes and fruits have 
been mostly removed; the small teacups may be refilled. 
The delicious tea costs less than a cent a cup; there is 
no drunkenness here; there are no bar-room brawls; 
there may be the mild merriment and sociability that 
come of theine, but not the maniacal madness of alcohol. 
I leave further comparison between the beer-saloon of 
the West and the tea-house of the East for your own 
making. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 87 

You may see two pipes standing on the table by the 
teacups; they are not opium-pipes, but a not uncommon 
style of metal tobacco-pipe. The horizontal bowl is filled 
with water; the small upright bowl for the tobacco is 
attached to the top of the water-bowl; a small quantity 
of tobacco is used at one time; the smoke is drawn 
through the water and thereby cooled and purified. Wa¬ 
ter-pipes in endless varieties are used, not only in China, 
but in all Oriental countries; so between sipping 
draughts of mild tea and whiffing a smoke well freed of 
its harmful alkaloid, the Chinaman whiles away his lei¬ 
sure. 

Notice the old man by the first table; according to 
Shakespeare he must be a great thinker; for the peerless 
poet makes Caesar say: “Yon Cassius has a lean and 
hungry look; he thinks too much; such men are danger¬ 
ous.” One lady noticing the sharp, thin face of this man 
remarked, “ When the Chinese are skinny they are so 
awful skinny!” Well, I must tell you that this lean, 
hungry-looking specimen was my guide at this tea¬ 
house; that I found him not only hungry-looking, but 
hungry, indeed; for no sooner had we entered the place 
than he ordered a cup of tea for himself, and ordered his 
cup several times refilled. 

I smiled at his many generous draughts; but when 
leaving the place I learned that although his face was 
thin, there was no lack of “ cheek ”; the several cups 
were all charged to me. The cup was small and the bill 
was small, but the “ cheek ” was huge. This was the 


88 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


third time in the one day’s service that this old picked-up 
guide had “ squeezed my pigeon but I should explain 
this curious phrase, which is current and well understood 
in all parts of China where the so-called “ pigeon Eng¬ 
lish ” is spoken. “ Pigeon,” or “ pigin,” is as near as the 
Chinese lingual organs can come to saying business. A 
Chinaman, for instance, who wishes to say, “ That is not 
my business,” will say, “ That no my pigeon.” All Chi¬ 
nese servants, without exception, will in some way get 
a commission or a profit out of any handling of money 
for their employers. If you send a servant to buy an 
article he will in some way get a percentage out of the 
transaction. This is called “ squeezing the pigeon.” 
This habit is universal and often extremely tantalizing. 
It is so thoroughly engrafted on the Chinese business 
code that severe and repeated floggings will not check 
it. 

Now that we have taken our first lesson in pigeon 
English, I will return to my guide the tea-drinker. On 
the same day this cadaverous-looking old Cassius ac¬ 
companied me to the native city where he pretended that 
certain fees were required, a part of which, I am sure, he 
kept himself. Later in the day he engaged to find a 
native woman who would allow her compressed feet to 
be photographed; he found one who would thus ex¬ 
pose her feet for two dollars, as he said. I afterward 
learned that he paid the subject one dollar and kept the 
other himself. Thus at this tea-house was my “ pigeon 
squeezed ” for the third time in one day. As we reached 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


89 


the street I entered a “ rikisha ” and said to my hungry 
old guide: “You squeeze my pigeon three times, I 
squeeze your pigeon one time,” and deducted from his 
pay three “ squeezes,” and we parted. 

During my stay in Shanghai a desperate river pirate 
was captured. He had previously committed several 
murders; but his last ofifense was the gouging out of a 
man’s eyes. He was taken in this crime and brought 
to the native city where he was tried before a Chinese 
tribunal and condemned to die by what is known as the 


21. One of China's Most Terrible Methods of Death 
Punishment, the “Cage,” Shanghai. 

The public announcement that the death penalty by 
the “ cage ” was to be inflicted upon this notorious fiend 
created great excitement among the natives of Shanghai. 
This means of execution had not been employed for 
many years; few had ever seen a criminal in a “ cage,” 
which consists, as you can see, of a frame of rough sticks 
sufficiently high to allow a man to stand erect within. 
Boards are placed close around his neck and made fast 
to the frame; flat stones are placed beneath his feet, sup¬ 
porting him about twelve inches above the ground. After 
a stated time these stones are removed one by one, caus¬ 
ing a gradual suspension by the neck and a slow strangu¬ 
lation. Before the termination of this prolonged death 
penalty, the criminal in his cage is compelled to stand 
one day before each gate of the city. There are six 


90 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

gates to the old city of Shanghai; that means a week of 
unimaginable fatigue before the scornful gaze of crowds 
in the thoroughfares. During all that time public curi¬ 
osity was increasing and the daily crowd was becoming 
larger. When I heard of this unusual spectacle of a 
caged criminal, I arranged with a Chinese shopkeeper, 
with whom I had become acquainted, to go with me as 
interpreter, he being able to speak a little English. To¬ 
gether we visited several gates before we could locate the 
prisoner. We had heard beforehand that the condemned 
man was charging fifty cents each for snapshots. When 
we finally found him he was surrounded by an im¬ 
penetrable crowd of natives, and his charges had gone 
up to five dollars under a lively patronage. We found 
we had to negotiate with the police in charge, who were 
evidently dividing the “ squeezes ” with the prisoner. My 
Chinese friend succeeded after tedious parley in a surg¬ 
ing crowd in reducing the license from five Mexican 
dollars to four, with the proviso that the crowd must be 
cleared out of the way, and that the prisoner must re¬ 
move his hat and turn his face toward the light. To 
this the police agreed and the four dollars had to be paid 
beforehand. In this way the view was secured. It is 
rare because this form of death penalty is rarely imposed. 
Notice how he holds the straw hat, which by our verbal 
contract he was obliged to remove; and note also the 
peculiarities of his hair; his queue has been removed and 
his front hair allowed to grow. This is always done 
with criminals. The queue and the shaven front are 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 91 

marks of loyalty to the reigning dynasty and not per¬ 
mitted on the part of those under condemnation. Notice 
the iron hasps on the side of the cage, through which 
poles are put to carry it from gate to gate; also the flat 
stones beneath his feet soon to be removed one by one. 
His ruling passion (the “ squeeze ”) is strong in death. 
This is the last gate, and to-morrow means the removal 
of the first stone. When the morrow came this poor 
callous wretch was dead; his friends had smuggled in 
to him during the last night a mortal draught, and he 
cheated the cage of its intended strangulation. I asked 
my Chinese friend what this man, condemned to ig¬ 
nominious death, would do with this money. He re¬ 
plied, “ Give to his people.” Here again is filial piety. 
His face is not so bad, less Mongolian than most in that 
horde behind; but the capacity for heartless crime was 
there, and he paid the penalty. This is one of the many 
strange devices for torture and punishment practiced in 
China; further on in our itinerary I will explain others. 

From one of the modes of penalty we will proceed to a 
place where I can show you one of the modes of fashion. 
Dame Fashion is a tyrannical mistress in all countries, 
and not less so in China than elsewhere. She contracts 
waists in America and compresses feet in China. You are 
accustomed to see the former contracted beyond the nor¬ 
mal condition, but not the latter; so we will enter a room 
at the hotel where you can see what has rarely been seen, 
the unwrapped, exposed small feet of a Chinese woman. 
All the world has heard of these small feet, but very few, 


92 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


even of the missionaries who dwell in that land, have ever 
seen them. 

22 . A High-caste Tady’s Dainty “ Tily Feet,” Show¬ 
ing Method of Deformity (Shoe Worn on Great 
Toe Only), Shanghai. 

Here they are in every particular of repulsive malfor¬ 
mation, and they are called “ lily feet.” What a slander 
on that floral gem! Much has been written about this 
strange custom of binding the feet, and many different 
ideas advanced as to its origin. Some Chinese tell us that 
it was a handicap placed on woman’s gadding proclivities 
many centuries ago. Another tradition tells how a beau¬ 
tiful princess, having club feet, so skillfully concealed the 
fact that others imitated her methods and in this way her 
imitators brought about a fashion of binding the feet. I 
am more inclined to believe, however, that it is an inno¬ 
vation of fashion; that through all time small feet have 
been considered more comely than large feet; and fashion 
exaggerates every means to an end, and this custom has 
been exaggerated into a deformity in China. Western 
nations are not guiltless in this matter; corns and bunions 
and other feet ailments are often attributable to feet-bind- 
ing by shoes which are too small. Any person who wears 
shoes a size or a half-size too small lives in a glass house 
and must not criticise foot-binding in China; it is there¬ 
fore a matter of degree and not principle. The Chinese 
insist that tight lacing in Western countries is in worse 
taste and more injurious to health than feet-binding; that 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 93 

the waist is more vital than the feet, and that a slight 
compression of the former is more disastrous than even 
malformation of the latter. It is generally believed that 
feet-binding is only practiced by the upper classes, and 
that “ lily feet ” are a badge of refinement; later writers 
and travellers in China claim this is a mistake, and my 
own observations have been that it is practiced by ail 
classes except the Manchus, though no doubt less by the 
lower class, who are obliged to work. 

Doubtless you would like to know the process by which 
this deformity is accomplished. When the little miss has 
her muscles of locomotion fairly well developed, say at 
from five to eight years of age, pieces of cloth from two 
to three inches wide are wound tightly around the feet, 
commencing at the great toe and winding upward to and 
over the ankle; the toes are turned under, as you see them 
in this case; the heel is drawn toward the sole of the loot 
until the two extremes are nearly in contact; other and 
stronger wrappings are added; occasionally the bandages 
are removed and readjusted; the circulation is sufficiently 
arrested to stop further growth and development. This 
process of binding is never abandoned even in adult life. 
Should the bandages be removed, an undesirable expan¬ 
sion will follow, but never to a normal condition. Disuse 
of the feet deteriorates the muscles of the legs, and the 
calves almost disappear; but this adds to the symmetry 
of the ideal female form which, according to the Chinese 
fancy, should taper gradually from the shoulders to the 
point of the little foot. These dainty feet are well nigh 


94 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


useless for pedestrian purposes, and impart a gait which 
one can imitate perfectly by trying to walk on the heels 
without touching the front part of the foot to the ground. 

Possibly you would like to know how I succeeded in 
getting this view, since I have told you they are so seldom 
seen. You remember my old guide at the tea-house who 
“ squeezed the pigeon ” when trying to find me a small¬ 
footed subject. He promised to find for me a woman 
who would allow her feet to be photographed. I went 
with him to a native quarter of the city, where he said he 
had bargained with a pretty girl; because I, of course, 
stipulated that the face should be pretty as well as the 
feet, for art purposes. He took me by devious ways to 
an upper floor, where, after haggling with the inmates for 
a tedious length of time, he brought forth an unusually 
comely specimen who giggled after the fashion of girls 
the world over; but she had not been made to understand 
that her feet must be unbound, and when this was ex¬ 
plained to her she fled precipitately, and no money con¬ 
sideration would tempt her to return. We left and tried 
another home in which the subjects offered were too ugly 
for consideration. We tried a third house, to which we 
were followed by a wild gang of idlers, who wondered 
what the “ fangwei ” (foreign devil) was in search of. 
We entered a back yard where gates and doors had to be 
barred to keep out the crowd. Here, after much delay 
and trouble, I secured a picture of an unsatisfactory 
specimen, for which I paid two dollars. Some time after 
this experience I engaged a Chinese waiter at the hotel to 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 95 

find a more suitable subject. After an extended search 
he found one girl, who, for a consideration of four Mexican 
dollars, would come to the hotel and unwrap her feet for 
the camera. She was poor, and four silver dollars was a 
tempting sum; necessity has no choice. She came, ac¬ 
companied by her mother, underwent the humiliation, and 
the result is now before you for inspection. Long usage 
has taught them to look upon small feet as beautiful; but 
it is only when they are encased in dainty silken shoes that 
they are presentable. Their unwillingness to expose them 
shows a consciousness of their repulsive appearance when 
unbound. The small feet of the Chinese women are not 
so small as they appear to be; the sharp front part of the 
foot is wedged into the small shoe, while the heel is lifted 
up into the leg of the shoe, thus giving the appearance of 
a foot scarcely three inches long, when in reality it may 
be six or seven inches. I have occupied considerable 
space in telling you about feet-binding, because it is prob¬ 
ably the most extraordinary of all Chinese customs. 

You will remember that while viewing the city from an 
elevation I pointed out a large white steamer at the dock. 
We shall board that steamer in the evening, pay $7.50 for 
a first-class fare, and during the following forenoon shall 
be landed at Ningpo, which, as our map of eastern China 
shows, is about one hundred and fifty miles south of 
Shanghai. 

23. At the Steamer Landing, Ningpo . 

We have left the steamer and have taken our position 
on a street leading from the landing to the city. We are 


96 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

looking eastward down the Ningpo River, up which we 
have just come. Close to us is a crowd of coolies and 
the merchandise to be put on board for Shanghai. By 
descending the river and continuing directly eastward for 
ninety-five miles we would arrive at Chusan, in the group 
of islands of the same name. We have here again the 
same busy scene to be witnessed at every port in China, 
the ever-present, burden-bearing coolie who, in his own 
country, bids defiance to every form of labor-saving ma¬ 
chine. He is a labor-machine himself—willing, patient, 
full of endurance and contentment on ten cents a day, and 
such a thing as a strike has never dawned on his ox-like 
willingness to do an ox’s work. His labor has been of 
great value to his country and to the world; but who has 
ever thought of erecting a monument in recognition of the 
world’s indebtedness to the poor coolie. You may notice 
how he often folds his queue about his head to be less in¬ 
convenient. We are seeing this place on the last day of 
April; by the shadows you know the sun is shining; by 
the umbrellas you know it is warm. For greater com¬ 
fort some of the coolies, like the Russian peasants, are 
wearing their shirts outside their trousers, and I am not 
sure but it is the proper way. One or two women may 
be seen in this crowd. I imagine some of these bales con¬ 
tain charcoal, as large quantities of it are shipped to 
Shanghai; we can see junks in the river; Ningpo is an 
important place for junk-building. We can see European 
houses in the distance by the river. Ningpo was taken 
by the British in 1841, and is now a treaty port. It is en- 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 9^ 

compassed by a wall twenty-five feet in height and con¬ 
tains a population of about 250,000. TJie Chinese con¬ 
sider Ningpo as one of the finest cities in the Empire; but 
to Europeans it is difficult to find much that may be con¬ 
sidered fine; the streets are narrow and dirty, and it is 
intersected by numerous canals which are not by any 
means Venetian in general effect. And, as in all cities in 
China, everything is out of repair; there are no signs of 
progress; no new buildings or bridges; everything is 
old; everything is dilapidated; everywhere there is dirt 
and disorder. Pope makes order “ Heaven’s first law,” 
but it is surely the tail-end of the Chinese code. 

Let us find some one among those natives to guide us 
into the city. After a half hour’s walk we shall find a 
position on the upper floor of a native shop, from which 
we can overlook a long bridge of boats. 

24. Bridge oyer the Fung Wha Branch of the Tang 
River, Showing Catholic Church, Ningpo. 

This bridge is usually a great thoroughfare in Ningpo, 
especially on market days, when it is lined from end to 
end with sellers of all kinds of country produce, as well as 
manufactured goods. On such days it is next to impos¬ 
sible to pass over it, and ferrymen do a flourishing busi¬ 
ness, when this branch of the river is impeded by the mul¬ 
titude of small boats carrying passengers to and fro. The 
bridge is two hundred yards long and five broad, made of 
sixteen lighters chained together and covered with planks 
securely lashed, the whole line of boats being held by 


98 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

anchors. This is plainly not a market day from the small 
line of people on the bridge. It was while making this 
view that I espied a woman crossing with hair coiffured 
in a most unusual and fantastic style. I dispatched my 
native guide in great haste to intercept her and negotiate 
a pose, but all attempts and money offers were unavailing. 
Her hair was arranged in a thin, vertical coil, projecting 
about eight inches from her head behind and noticeable at 
any distance. The wearers of this odd coiffure are female 
barbers and belong to an order called the “To min” I 
cannot just now see one; but only a second ago one of 
them was on the bridge near us. There are three thou¬ 
sand in the “To min ” set, and they, like the Tankia at 
Canton, are despised by the general community. The 
men are not allowed to compete in the examinations or 
follow an honorable vocation; they are often actors, mu¬ 
sicians or sedan-chair carriers. The women are profes¬ 
sional match-makers and barbers, and are obliged to wear 
a distinctive dress. The “To min” are supposed to be de¬ 
scendants of one Kin who aided the Japanese in their at¬ 
tack on this province; hence the odium which has rested 
upon them ever since. It is often charged that the Chi¬ 
nese lack patriotism, but this prejudice against the “ To 
min ” surely resembles patriotism. 

You see a part of the steeple of the Catholic Church 
beyond the river. A Christian Church in the heart of a 
Chinese city is always a wonderful sight because of its 
power of suggestion. It always seems to say: “ Look on 
this picture and on this.” The missionary work has long 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 99 

been well established in Ningpo. All denominations are 
represented, and it is said that the people in this province 
have been more susceptible to Christian influence than in 
many other parts of the country. The sights that meet 
the eye in Ningpo are very similar to those we have seen 
in Shanghai and Canton, but still there are some curious 
things worthy our attention. 

We will cross that bridge and pass yonder church. On 
our way, in a yard, a timber-yard, we will call it, we shall 
stop to inspect an unusual and ancient kind of saw-mill. 

25. Lumber Makers in a Chinese Saw-Mill, Ningpo. 

This is truly the saw-mill of the country; it is every¬ 
where in the rural districts, in the villages, in the great 
cities; even in the great cities like Shanghai and T,ien-tsin, 
where manufacturers are partially Europeanized. This 
primitive method of lumber making still bears the sway 
and the smart modern steam saw-mill can scarcely com¬ 
pete. T.his mill will generally run threescore and ten 
years without any important renovation or restoration; 
besides, it is not an eight-hour mill; it runs from sunrise 
to sunset and seven days in the week, and never goes on a 
strike; it contains an automatic free orchestra attach¬ 
ment which furnishes music all day long; that is, they 
sing as they work. It turns out between two and three 
hundred feet of lumber per day. The running expenses 
are trifling: mill rent, twenty cents; fuel (rice), ten 
cents; extra mill hands, nothing; natural wear and tear, 
nothing; total daily running expense of the mill, thirty 

L. cf C. 


IOO 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


cents. Here we have another example of the invaluable 
labor of the unhonored coolie. See if you can tell how 
this heavy timber is supported rigidly erect for the heavy 
strain of a cross-cut saw. The timber was not put in 
place for the camera; the coolies simply stopped their 
work for a moment. Then we are to remember that this 
is the kind of mill that supplies the largest empire in the 
world with lumber. Have you ever seen a cross-cut saw 
like that? It is after the fashion of our buck-saw, used 
horizontally, with the saw at right angles to the frame; 
that is the universal model of saw for the East, both for 
light and heavy work. This is a timber yard as well as a 
saw-mill. There is a stack of bamboo poles of all sizes, 
destined to be used for almost every conceivable purpose. 

We will give those poor toilers a few cash and proceed 
on our way until we reach a beautiful temple called the 
Fukien Guild Hall. 

26. The Dragon Guarding the Front of the Fukien 
Guild Hall, Ningpo. 

T,his magnificent structure was first erected in the 
twelfth century by men from the Province of Fukien, 
which lies south of Chien Kiang, the province in which 
Ningpo is located. It was rebuilt in 1680, and one can 
scarcely believe from the bright new appearance of the 
carved columns that it has been standing as we now see it 
for over two hundred years. It has a large membership 
of wealthy men and is richly endowed. These Guild Halls 
in the Flowery Kingdom correspond to clubs in Western 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


IOI 


countries; they are social and semi-commercial, being a 
meeting place for commercial and literary men and peo¬ 
ple of wealth and standing. The buildings cover an ex¬ 
tensive area, arranged in different halls of one story with 
a courtyard in front of each. Merchants from the same 
province of Fukien have erected another beautiful Guild 
Hall at Canton at a cost of $120,000. In some of the halls 
a stage is erected for theatrical performances, and from a 
balcony members and their friends can enjoy the enter¬ 
tainments. In other halls shrines are dedicated to differ¬ 
ent so-called deities, such as the Queen of Heaven, the 
God of Learning, etc. This Fukien Guild Hall, or temple, 
is said to be dedicated to the Marine Goddess, Ma Tsupu. 
There is also in some part of the temple area an Ancestral 
Hall, in which tablets are erected in memory of departed 
members of the guild or club. The appearance of this 
place on festal occasions is animated and brilliant. Lan¬ 
terns and scrolls are suspended from the ceilings on which 
curious characters and devices are written in gorgeous 
colors. The rich and elaborate magnificence of the carv¬ 
ing on those columns you can observe from where we 
stand. Some of these columns, my guide told me, were 
executed in Amoy and others in Ningpo; they are mono¬ 
lithic and of fine gray granite. We have noticed from 
time to time on our journey the lack of architectural 
beauty and attractiveness in Chinese buildings. The An¬ 
cestral Hall in Canton was beautiful. In this clubhouse 
we have another evidence that the Chinese are not devoid 
of architectural art and taste. These columns would not 


102 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


disgrace the carver’s cunning in any age or country. 
Just notice how delicate in every detail, how rich the de¬ 
signs and in what elaborate and bold relief are the figures 
on the columns of this porch. 

The two national emblems are here brought before us 
so conspicuously and in such beautiful art that I must tell 
you something about them. I mean the dragon and the 
lion. What the lion and the unicorn are to England, and 
what the eagle is to America, the dragon and the lion are 
to China. They are the chief national emblems; you will 
see them everywhere in art and decoration. The dragon 
is the symbol on the Imperial flag; the lion is the guard¬ 
ian of every home, shop and temple. Every people must 
have a mythology; human nature takes to myth as to 
food; it seems almost an indispensable psychological ali¬ 
ment, and the people of the Middle Kingdom are no ex¬ 
ception. The whole empire is filled with mysterious influ¬ 
ences, which, of course, must be localized and symbolized. 
In Chinese mythology there is not one dragon, but many; 
there is the Celestial dragon which presides over the man¬ 
sions of the gods; the divine dragon which causes the 
winds to blow. The Buddhists consider their dragons as 
numerous as the fish of the sea; but the fabulous dragon 
with scales and claws seems to be a sort of Jupiter or Odin 
in their polytheism; he performs many functions. He is 
represented as a flying Saurian, yet without wings; plain¬ 
ly a different species from the one encountered by St. 
George. He is always represented as a scaly five-clawed 
crocodile; he presides over the elements; he has power to 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 103 

become visible or invisible; in short, he is a factotum in 
their divinity business. He is the crest on royal monu¬ 
ments, is displayed on the Emperor’s robes, and the Grand 
Chair of State is called the dragon throne. 

Next in importance after the dragon is probably the 
lion. He figures conspicuously in porcelain, in bronze, in 
painting, in sculpture, in every form of decoration; he is 
conventionalized into many grotesque forms with feathery 
spreading tail and bulging eyes. You may see him carved 
in stone before every yamen and temple and official resi¬ 
dence ; at the shop doors in every street you will see him 
carved in wood and gilded. The lion, therefore, seems to 
be a one-headed Cerberus charged with the big task of 
guarding all the important doors of the Empire. Cerbe¬ 
rus required three heads to guard the entrance to Hades, 
and two stern lions always guard important doorways in 
China. These guardian lions may be stone during the 
day, but they are good, vigilant, live lions during the 
night, so it is believed, and it is said they may be seen 
roaming about at hours when children should be in doors. 
Recalling these things, we can better understand why the 
lion and dragon are in such high esteem and how they 
outrank all other divinities in the Chinese mythology. 
We should not fail to note carefully the splendidly carved 
dragons on those graceful columns and the one of the two 
lions which guard the door of this matchless Guild Hall. 
Do not make a mistake and confound our guide who rests 
on the porch with the Cerberus on the pedestal, because 
they are both lions on this occasion. 


104 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


Before returning to the ship which takes us back to 
Shanghai, we will enter one hall of a Buddhistic temple 
to look for a few moments at some gigantic statues of 
Buddha. 

27. Colossal Statues of Buddha in Fuchoo Temple f 
Ningpo . 

I have already told you something about Buddha and 
the philosophy which he taught. We saw statues in the 
temple of the Five Hundred Genii at Canton, dedicated 
to the memory of distinguished followers of that great 
philosopher; and here we have before us great statues of 
Buddha himself. Probably no person ever lived who has 
had so great a number of statues erected to his memory. 
You know how widespread are his teachings, and memo¬ 
rial statues are as universal as his teachings. T ( hese im¬ 
mense figures are carved out of wood according to the 
conventional model of Buddhas the world over, i.e., in the 
sitting posture with legs crossed somewhat after the man¬ 
ner of the sartorial artist of earlier days, with eyebrows 
thinly trimmed down and with looped pendent ear lobes. 
It is said that “ Humility is the mark of every master 
mind.” Observe how, in his downcast gaze, the concep¬ 
tion of humility has been wrought out as a proper attri¬ 
bute of the real philosopher; at the same time there is 
the expression of repose as one who has mastered all the 
ills of life and attained Nirvana. The world of Buddhism 
is full of these statues of all sizes and of all materials. 
There is one in Japan visited by many travellers. It is 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 105 

made of bronze, and, although in a sitting posture, is for¬ 
ty-four feet in height. I have seen some wonderful mono¬ 
lithic statues of Buddha in Ceylon cut from prodigious 
granite bowlders and standing erect forty feet in height; 
also some of about an equal length lying prostrate in the 
rock temples at Dambulla, not far from the same place. 
Even in this temple you may see the ubiquitous dragon 
wriggling in that ornate background of the statue. 

We must now make our obeisance, and leaving the 
presence of this august image of the great Indian phi¬ 
losopher, zigzag our way through teeming multitudes 
to our ship. Returning again to Shanghai, we enter 
the vehicle which I likened to the “ One-Hoss Shay,” 
and passing around the native city enter the compound 
of the South Gate Presbyterian School, where we will 
find a charming group of native schoolgirls under the 
care of Miss Cogdal and receiving instruction in em¬ 
broidery. 

28. Refinement and Industry for China’s Masses— 
Girls Making Embroidery at South Gate Presby¬ 
terian Mission School, Shanghai. 

Embroidery is a high art in China. It is carried to 
wonderful perfection. The garments of the upper 
classes are decorated most elaborately in richest colors 
of the rarest needle-craft. Nearly all garments are made 
of either silk or satin. Embroidery is the crowning glory 
of every wardrobe, and a wardrobe in China is not pre¬ 
tentious until it reaches a value of from five to ten thou- 


106 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

sand dollars. It is one of the chief manual industries 
of the country. It is all hand-work and performed by 
women and girls in the homes and not in factories. It 
is not confined to wearing apparel. It is for furniture, 
wall decoration, screens, indeed, for everything in which 
rich silk fabric can form a part, from chair cushions to 
the royal robes of the Imperial Court. For skill in this 
cunning the Chinese women are unexcelled. Birds, but¬ 
terflies, flowers, life figures and portraiture are all mar¬ 
velously executed in the most exquisite colors and de¬ 
signs. Their national trait of patience is the prerequisite 
for embroidery. Here you see a number of girls, nearly 
all from families of the better class, some grown to wom¬ 
anhood, others little tots, all neatly attired and as dili¬ 
gent as ants, at work on pieces of embroidery, stretched 
on sticks, after the fashion of the quilting frame of by¬ 
gone days. It would be impossible, in all China, nay, in 
all the world, I am inclined to think, to find a more 
comely and cultured group of girls than these; so gentle, 
so refined, so modest. No high-pitched voices, no ri¬ 
valry in smart talk , no gossip, but infinite skill in their 
handicraft. It is impossible to realize how many such 
as these were sacrificed during the Boxer war. At the 
time I was here these pure young hearts were saddened 
with the dread of the coming night. It was at the be¬ 
ginning of that uprising when many feared an attack 
at Shanghai. And at this school several natives and oth¬ 
ers connected with the mission were doing guard duty 
every night; but no attack was ever made. Distance de- 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 107 

stroys sympathy, and those far away cannot realize how 
terribly cruel and wanton and widespread was the butch¬ 
ery of innocence in that relentless war. This school is 
located quite away from the European settlement in one 
of the suburbs of the native city and is surrounded alto¬ 
gether by a native population. It was apparently under 
excellent management, and when these girls were al¬ 
lowed for the first time to look at some of Underwood 
& Underwood’s stereoscopic photographs through the 
stereoscope, they were quite overpowered with curiosity, 
wonder and amazement; and when they learned they 
were to be stereographed they hopped about in the most 
lively fashion, as girls are wont to do when their joy be¬ 
comes ecstatic. They could scarcely be longer held at 
the plodding work of embroidery; they were all in a 
frolic when Miss Cogdal gave license for a romp in the 
yard. Then to show me how Occidental these Oriental 
girls are becoming under Western tuition, Miss Cogdal 
assembled her little flock for an exercise with the dumb¬ 
bells. You may now see them in their beautiful garden. 

2Q. Training of Body and Mind and Soul—Chinese 
Children at Dumb-bell Exercises, South Gate 
Presbyterian Mission School , Shanghai. 

The little girls are placed in front, the larger ones 
in the rear; they all engage in the exercises with eager¬ 
ness and animation and acquit themselves seemingly as 
well as Western girls could do. I desire especially to call 
your attention to their bright faces. On several occa- 


108 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

sions before I have asked you to notice the sad and ex¬ 
pressionless faces in native groups; but these counte¬ 
nances are scarcely more than half Mongolian; they are 
bright and cheerful. This is partially owing to the fact 
that they have just been looking through the stereoscope 
and are at this moment being immortalized after the 
fashion of the subjects of the views they have seen, and 
partly to the loving influence of their kindly teacher. 
We find here no bare feet nor dirty faces, no soiled gar¬ 
ments ; all are neat and tidy, and from refined homes 
and under a faithful American teacher. 

The eager and uncontrollable desire of these children 
to see themselves in the stereoscope was almost pitiful. 
Some four months later when I returned from Pekin 
and the North, I secured a stereoscope for their teacher 
with a picture of the class. I found the school had been 
removed to safer quarters within the settlement. When 
the stereoscope and the pictures were presented to Miss 
Cogdal she could scarcely repress her clamorous, im¬ 
portunate pupils, who clung to her skirts, awaiting their 
turns to witness their own faces under the magical ef¬ 
fect, as it seemed to them, of the stereoscope. 

Keeping in mind that those pupils in the rear of the 
line are young ladies, I must tell you how carefully girls 
of the upper class are reared as regards moral and social 
training; though we are not to forget that China is full 
of paradoxes and contradictions. I have, heretofore, 
told you that women are slaves and playthings and held 
in but slight respect. Now I am about to tell you how 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 109 

carefully the better class are trained in moral and do¬ 
mestic duty. In reconciliation of these paradoxical state¬ 
ments, let me quote from a preface of a most interesting 
little book translated from the Chinese by Mrs. S. L. 
Baldwin: “ Few people in the West have any intelligent 
conception of the remarkable civilization that has ex¬ 
isted in China for hundreds of years, and this in strange 
contrast with her squalor, poverty and heathenism.” 
Wherever we go in this “ Flowery Kingdom ” we are 
meeting these contradictions, viz.: remarkable civiliza¬ 
tion and amazing barbarism; so that one is constantly 
admiring and as constantly in a mood of imprecation. 
The little book to whose translation I have referred, is a 
book of etiquette entitled: “ Instruction for Chinese 
Women and Girls.” This extraordinary little book of 
etiquette was written over eighteen hundred years ago 
by one Pang Tai Ku, a very celebrated literary woman, 
and her instructions are so remarkable when we con¬ 
sider the time at which they were written that I cannot 
refrain from quoting some portions to you while these 
little girls and young ladies are before you; because we 
can scarcely help associating their grace and good breed¬ 
ing with such moral teaching as has come down through 
the centuries from Pang Tai Ku. Let me first give you 
the introduction to this venerable book of etiquette: 
“ Tai Ku, your handmaid, is of an illustrious family and 
was a philosopher’s wife. I have tried to perfect myself 
in the four womanly virtues, which are: First, carefulness 
of deportment, which includes manners, dress, and all 


no 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


outward conduct; second, all womanly duties; third, talk¬ 
ing little and that of profit; fourth, to be virtuous. Hav¬ 
ing but few duties, I made books a study. I also earnest¬ 
ly tried to follow the example of the ‘ nine upright wom¬ 
en’ and ‘ three chaste ones ’ (ancient Chinese women 
distinguished for their virtues). 

“ It is lamentable that succeeding women have not 
followed in their footsteps. Because of this I have pre¬ 
pared this book and desire it to be carefully handed 
down for the benefit of girls and women.” 

ON THE CULTIVATION OF VIRTUE. 

All girls everywhere, 

First should learn to cultivate virtue. 

Of cultivating virtue’s method, 

The most important is 

To be pure and upright in morals; 

If pure, you are clean inside and outside; 

Chastity is your body’s glory; 

Having it, all your acts shine. 

When walking, look straight, turn not your head; 

Talking, restrain your voice within your teeth; 

Sitting, don’t shake your knees—a common fault with men. 

Standing, keep quiet your skirts; 

When pleased, laugh not aloud; 

If angry, still make no noise; 


USING THE NEEDLE. 

To embroider shoes, stitch stockings, 
Mend clothes, and unite cloth, 

Trim and quilt garments, 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


Ill 


All such work should you be able to do. 

If you follow these instructions, 

Whether it be cold or warm, 

You will have suitable clothing, 

And rags and poverty you will not know. 

Do not imitate lazy women 

Who from youth to womanhood have been stupid 
Not having exerted themselves in woman’s work. 
They are prepared for neither cold nor warm weather. 
Their sewing is so miserable 
People both laugh at and despise them. 

The idle girl going forth to be married, 

Injures the reputation of her husband’s whole family. 
Her clothes are ragged and dirty. 

She vainly pulls the West over to cover the East— 
(A sly pull to hide a rent). 

She is a disgrace to her village. 

I thus exhort and warn the girls, 

Let them hear and learn. 

ON ATTENTION TO DOMESTIC DUTIES. 

Girls must learn to sweep and clean; 

What cannot be swept must be washed. 

Think not such work unimportant; 

Everyone will see your neatness, 

And your whole house will be bright. 

Industry builds the house, 

Idleness will pull it down. 

Great riches are the gift of Heaven, 

A satisfying supply the gift of Industry. 

ON THE TREATMENT OF GUESTS. 

All families should be hospitable. 

When a guest is expected, 


112 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


See that the chairs and tables, 

Plates and bowls are all in order. 

If it is a male guest, 

The wife may not be seen, 

But, near the reception room 
Await her husband’s orders. 

If tea is wanted, 

See that it is promptly brought. 

If the guest remains to eat and sleep, 

Wait for the husband to come 
And say what he wishes prepared; 

Whether to kill chickens or cook vegetables, 
Or only offer refreshments. 

Do not imitate those careless women 
Who do not look after the reception room; 
Who are hurried and without self-possession, 
And therefore do nothing properly. 

Such are very angry 

When the husband invites a guest to stay. 
They bring chop-sticks but no spoons; 

Salt but no pepper. 

Before the guest has eaten 
They are eating; 

They whip the boys, 

And scold the girls, 

And all is confusion. 

Such disgrace their husbands, 

And mortify the guests. 

If a guest arrives 

When the husband is absent, 

Send a small child to inquire 
Whence he comes. 

If he looks like a friend, 

Send and ask his name 


china through the stereoscope. 113 

And invite him to enter, 

Then with hair in order and dress neat, 

The wife may enter the reception room 
And present her salutation. 

Then let the tea be served, 

And observe all politeness. 

After he has taken tea. 

She should inquire his business, 

And if he is a very near friend or relation, 

She may invite him to await her husband’s return. 

But if he desires to go, 

She may accompany him only 
To the reception room entrance. 

I exhort all women to follow these instructions. 

ON THE INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 

Girls must dwell in secluded rooms; 

Seldom permit them to go outside. 

When they are called they must come; 

When told to go, let them obey. 

If disobedient in the least. 

Use small switches and punish them. 


The present generation’s children 
Are very bad; 

They have learned nothing. 

Boys know not how to read; 

They grow up following their own wills, 
Drinking wine and seeking only amusement. 
Living idle and useless lives, 

Singing songs and dancing, 

Disregarding their family duties, 


114 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

And fearing not their country’s laws. 

Girls too are unwilling to learn; 

They are stubborn and talkative, 

They know little of woman’s duties. 

Thus they injure themselves and their superiors. 

When grown they find themselves disgraced. 

Then they are displeased with their parents, 

And think not to blame themselves; 

Their evil words hurt their parents’ ears. 

Such girls are worse than wild-cats! 

Do not the foregoing quaint precepts written over 
eighteen hundred years ago plainly tell us that human 
nature never changes; that proprieties were the same 
then as now, and that boys and girls were boys and girls 
eighteen hundred years ago, and after all, human nature 
in the East is human nature in the West. 

By this time our class must be weary with supporting 
those dumbbells. So we will say good-by to our patient, 
gentle group of Mongolian lassies and take “ rikishas ” 
five or six miles farther out and southward to a village 
called Loong Wah, where once a year, during what is 
called the Peach-blossom Festival, the native inhabitants 
gather in great numbers to celebrate the bloom and 
promise of spring. One of the most remarkable features 
of this festival celebration is the number of beggars 
gathered by the roadside on the way to Loong Wah. 
We will have only time and opportunity to look at one 
of these beggars; but he being the king of beggars, we 
will consider him a fitting representative of the whole 
race. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 115 

30. “King of the Beggars” the Chief of a Beggar 
Guild—Vain of His Excessive Raggedness, 
Eoong Wah. 

On our arrival at Loong Wah, near the pagoda 
of the same name, which you see a few hun¬ 
dred feet before us, this “ Jolly Old Beggar ” 
marched directly into our presence with greasy, 
but by no means a starved-looking face, and asked for 
alms. We were at once struck by his extraordinary man¬ 
ner as well as by his extraordinary appearance; the first 
thing unusual in his manner was his smiling face and 
his cheerful willingness to stand before the camera. This 
he did just as you see him, and before receiving alms. 
This was done, too, before I had been made aware that 
he was a distinguished man, well known in his native 
village and in the country round; he is a royal person¬ 
age, even a king in his class, and undoubtedly a pos¬ 
sessor of considerable wealth. But surely neither his 
mien nor his garb betray his royalty; so I must explain 
it to you. Begging is a vocation in China, and beggary 
an institution. In every province there is an organized 
beggar’s society or guild, in some provinces several. 
These guilds have presidents and sub-officials, and are 
in all respects thoroughly organized. There is a mem¬ 
bership fee of about four dollars, and all members swear 
to abide by the rules and regulations of the society. The 
presidents, or “ Kings,” as they are generally called, are 
under the protection of a magistrate. The power of the 
head of a guild is considerable; and they are sometimes 


Il6 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

appointed watchmen over certain streets because their 
authority is greatly respected by the unscrupulous ele¬ 
ment of their own society. When a member dies the 
guild furnishes a two-dollar coffin for decent burial, and 
other members are required to attend the funeral; they 
maintain a lodging-house in which members are allowed 
to sleep at the rate of one cash (one-seventeenth of a 
cent) a night. In some towns the rich merchants fur¬ 
nish a dinner twice a year to the beggars on condition 
that they are not to be importuned by the guild for alms 
at other times. At certain times in the year all beg¬ 
gars worship at the graves of the brotherhood. Some 
of these guilds follow curious occupations, as at Foo 
Chow, where they engage in rearing snakes, which are 
sold to the medical fraternity, who boil them down for 
medicinal purposes. All beggars are not members of a 
guild; many are too poor and miserable to cope with the 
initiation fees; such beggars you saw at the “ Dying- 
place ” in Canton. The many expedients to which beg¬ 
gars here resort to elicit sympathy and extort alms is an 
ethnological study. Sometimes they have been known to 
carry a most unsightly leper, on whom the progress of 
his incurable disease has sloughed off ears and nose and 
hands. This is done to compel the inmates of homes 
to bestow alms in order to rid themselves of a loathsome 
nuisance. Others cut themselves with razors and be¬ 
spatter themselves with blood, taking care always to pre¬ 
sent the most bloody appearance with the least cutting 
possible. Another method is to stand on the street or 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 117 

by one’s home and beat the head in a most ferocious 
manner with a stick. The beholder is expected to give 
a few cash rather than witness such a scene. Others 
will wallop their heads against the house or any con¬ 
venient wall for the same purpose. Sometimes they will 
drop on the doorstep and threaten to die there unless 
their distress is relieved. When I was in Canton visiting 
a great temple, a miserable wretch who had been await¬ 
ing my exit from one of the courts, staggered for some 
time and then fell prostrate on the flagstones, to all ap¬ 
pearances suffering great agony and in a dying condi¬ 
tion. My guide told me that it was all affected, but that 
I might better leave a little cash-balm for him, as we were 
in an evil crowd, in an unsafe quarter. 

An expedient tried by some is to ignite a combustible 
substance on the tops of their heads, when they howl and 
writhe with pain and in that way prey upon the sym¬ 
pathy of the onlookers. Still another device which may 
always be seen in beggar thoroughfares, is to sit by the 
wayside and dash the forehead against a flat stone placed 
on the ground before them; this is done until there is 
an abrasion of the skin and the blood trickles copiously 
down the face. I have mentioned some of the mercenary 
self-tortures inflicted by the army of mendicants met 
everywhere in China, while the “ King ” is still waiting 
for his tribute money. You can see how thickly the rags 
are laid on, stratum upon stratum; but you cannot see 
how dirty they are. Clean rags would not be in good 
form. Even his royal scepter, which you will notice 


118 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

is a piece of bamboo, is decorated with emblems of pov¬ 
erty. Baths and ablutions are unknown to his sovereign 
majesty, and an enumeration of the entomological at¬ 
tendants of this royal bundle would be as difficult as a 
census of the empire. I had the opportunity of meeting 
this “ King of the Beggars ” several times, but after I 
had bestowed a moderate fee for this pose, his Highness 
did not deign to ask a second. Now let us “ Chin-chin ” 
(bye-bye) court fashion and return to Shanghai. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


II 9 


SOO-CHOW 

Eighty miles northwest of Shanghai, situated on the 
Grand Canal, is a city famous in Chinese history, but not 
so well known to the outside world. It was founded 
500 B.C. and must have been in its palmiest days a veri¬ 
table Oriental Venice, being still as of old, intersected 
by waterways in every direction. I refer to the city of 
Soo-chow (see map of Eastern China), to which the pet 
name “ Beautiful Soo ” has been given, because of the 
many attractive features it possessed during its earlier 
days. The world is indebted to the scholarship and re¬ 
search of the Rev. Hampden C. Du Bose, D.D., for 
much information about this historic place. Dr. Du 
Bose has written a booklet called “ Beautiful Soo,” in 
which he gives information that could scarcely be found 
elsewhere. He says the Chinese have a proverb as fol¬ 
lows: “ Heaven is above—below is Soo-chow and Hang¬ 
chow.” Hangchow is a seaport city lying about ninety 
miles south of Soo-chow. 

The Grand Canal at Soo-chow is connected with the 
Wusung at Shanghai by a branch canal, following the 
course of the Soo-chow creek. This waterway is well 
filled with all sorts of small craft plying between the two 
places, including steam-tugs towing native cargo and 


120 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


passenger-boats. The passenger accommodations are 
exceedingly primitive in the low, scow-like boats. One 
can barely stand erect in the shallow hold and must sup¬ 
ply himself with food for the journey, if he cannot eat 
the native chow. Provided with a packet of luncheon 
and a shawl and blanket, which have been my shelter 
and my only companions in many lands, I plunged into 
an abysmal bunk and abode therein until the following 
day, when I was landed outside the old wall in a Euro¬ 
pean concession, which has been granted in recent 
years. 

31 . A Chain Gang in China—In the Thoroughfare 
Wearing “Cangues,” which Record Their Crime, 
Soo-chow . 

We are here looking northwest, across the Grand 
Canal, toward the southern portion of the city, which 
is entirely within the wall. These prisoners stand upon 
a broad, well-paved, modern street running along the 
canal in front of the General Concession, There are 
only a few buildings in this quarter; the police head¬ 
quarters are just behind us, and these three prisoners 
have been brought out before us that we may better see 
how law-breakers are chained and cangued. Do not 
imagine that these fellows are wearing Elizabethan frills. 
I told you when describing the caged criminal at Shang¬ 
hai I might show you other forms of punishment later; 
this is another form of torture. It consists of this heavy 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


I 2 I 


frame of planks about three feet square, closed around 
the neck by transverse dowels and is called the Cangue . 

It projects so far that the wearer cannot reach his 
head with his hands, and is therefore liable to die from 
starvation unless he have friends to look after him. The 
cangue usually weighs about thirty-three pounds, and 
when it is borne for several months it would seem to be 
quite insupportable to any one but an inhabitant of this 
land. I often think that Chinamen must have cold blood 
or a very crude sensorium, so callous they seem to physi¬ 
cal pain. 

A more common mode of punishment than either the 
cage or the cangue is the bamboo, which is used for all 
minor offenses. It is in such universal use that for pur¬ 
poses of punishment, its weight and dimensions are fixed 
by law, which authorizes two sizes; the first is five feet 
eight inches in length, two and three-quarter inches in 
width and two inches thick, weighing two and two-fifth 
pounds; the second size is the same in length, two inches 
broad and one and one-fifth inches thick, weighing one 
and five-sixth pounds. These bamboos are applied to 
the back of the culprit, and the number of blows is ac¬ 
cording to the offense, varying from ten to a hundred, 
but these are subject to remission by the grace of the 
Emperor, or by a pecuniary redemption. The first of 
this trio of cangued prisoners casts a contemptuous 
glance at us; the second is humility itself; the third be¬ 
trays a hand-in-the-pocket indifference to what we say 


122 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


or think. You see written on the upper side of each 
cangue, in Chinese characters, the name and offense of 
each prisoner. 

Various modes of torture are practiced to extort evi¬ 
dence or confession; but certain classes are exempt from 
the torture, in consideration of respect due to their stand¬ 
ing in society. 

There are five degrees of punishment: 

The first degree is a moderate infliction with the small¬ 
er bamboo. 

The second degree imposes from sixty to one hundred 
blows of the bamboo. 

The third degree is that of temporary banishment. 

The fourth degree is that of perpetual banishment. 

The fifth and ultimate is that of death by strangula¬ 
tion, as with the cage or by decollation. 

We will not have time to go within that old wall which 
has stood there for two thousand years; you see it is 
after the fashion of every Chinese wall, and having seen 
one you have seen all. The same is true of the city in¬ 
side, it is typically Chinese, with a population of over 
seven hundred thousand. But here you obtain a good 
view of China’s most celebrated artificial waterway, the 
Imperial Canal, which extends from Hangchow to Pekin, 
a distance of seven hundred miles. Here along the wall 
of the city, where traffic is heavy, it is expanded into a 
sort of harbor. In its long stretches through the coun¬ 
try it is often very narrow and shallow; yet it has long 
been a very important means of both travel and trans- 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. I 23 

portation. Authorities estimate that ten thousand boats 
ply on this waterway and its branches. 

But this Imperial Canal is not only important as a 
means of transit; it is well supplied with many varieties 
of excellent fish, fish being one of the three staples of 
animal food, the other two being the hog and the duck. 
By entering a boat down there on the canal and swing¬ 
ing to the right and sailing out of the town a mile or 
two where the canal is still wide, I may show you one 
of the strangest and rarest methods of capturing fish 
you have ever seen—a method much cleverer and much 
more successful than that which provoked the humorous 
sarcasm that “ an angler is a rod with a fly at one end 
and a fool at the other ”—it is fishing with cormorants. 

32. Natives Fishing with Trained Cormorants in the 
Grand Canal, Soo-chow. 

Before visiting China I had read of fishing being done 
in that far-away land by means of trained water birds, 
but it seemed almost incredible. When I was in Can¬ 
ton I received a letter from the house of Underwood & 
Underwood saying that if it were possible to find cormo¬ 
rant fishing in any part of the country I should not fail 
to make a view of it. I was told in Canton that such a 
thing could only be seen far in the interior and had al¬ 
most despaired of finding any opportunity of photo¬ 
graphing such a scene; but while being rowed along this 
canal one day I suddenly came upon these two boats 
covered with great, unfamiliar birds. At first I was 


124 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


quite bewildered by the strange spectacle. In a moment 
it occurred to me that it was cormorant fishing. I mo¬ 
tioned my boatman to take me ashore that I might ob¬ 
tain the proper light and distance; but the fishermen 
with their educated birds made away from me as rapid¬ 
ly as possible. I told my native boy to offer them a 
dollar to stop; they rowed faster away. I told him to 
offer them a dollar and a half; the offer only served to 
increase their speed; they were thoroughly frightened. 
I was a foreigner carrying strange and suspicious de¬ 
vices that boded evil, as they thought. A Chinaman 
working near came to us and seeing apparently no ill 
designs in my movements, and being told I would give 
these men two dollars to be allowed to photograph their 
birds only, he started in pursuit of the fishermen along 
the bank of the canal. He finally overtook them, ex¬ 
plained my object and the money offer, and at last, after 
long and tedious negotiations, prevailed upon them to 
return. They returned and received their fee, and I, in 
exchange, obtained the much-desired view of fishing- 
cormorants. It is to be remembered that two dollars 
meant their earnings for twenty days, which would be 
equivalent to giving an American fisherman thirty dol¬ 
lars. 

These birds are thoroughly tamed and wonderfully 
trained; they sit around on the sides of the boat and 
sometimes dive off after fish of their own accord; but 
are more frequently urged by gentle touches with those 
poles. The fish are not usually seen from their perches 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 125 

on the boat, the water being often turbid; but they dive 
several feet under water and search for them. Strings 
or bands are put around their necks so that no fish large 
enough for cooking purposes can be swallowed. Fish 
passing through this gastronomic handicap the birds, 
of course, devour; those too large are brought to the 
surface, where the fishermen snatch them from their 
beaks and deposit them in the specially made fish-basket. 
Sometimes the fisherman, by way of encouragement, 
gives to his successful bird a small fish in exchange for 
a large one. Neck-bands are not always required; some 
birds are so well trained that they will deliver their prey 
without having any check put upon them. When sev¬ 
eral hundred are fishing together, the scene becomes very 
lively; but there is no confusion; each bird knows his 
own master. Sometimes when a large fish is taken one 
bird will go to the assistance of another, and the two 
together will bring the capture successfully to the boat. 
When not in service they are fed on bean-curds. They 
do not lay eggs until three years of age. The eggs are 
often hatched under hens, and the chickens are fed on 
eel’s blood and hash. In some parts of the country cor¬ 
morants are still trained in great numbers and are worth 
from five to eight dollars a pair. One boatman can 
oversee from twelve to fifteen birds. One of these boats 
came to the shore for me so I could make a close inspec¬ 
tion of these intelligent creatures. They were very gen¬ 
tle and allowed me to stroke them as one would a kit- 


126 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


ten. They had a rank, fishy odor, however, which was 
quite disagreeable. 

From this fishing-scene we will follow the Imperial 
Canal back to a picturesque bridge near the south wall 
of the city, where we will step ashore for a better view 
and where we can see the kinds of boats that ply along 
this great waterway. 

33. The Picturesque Land of Confucius—Woo Men 
Bridge and Grand Imperial Canal, Soo-chow. 

No one could feel that he had seen China unless he had 
seen one of these characteristic bridges or a pagoda. 
Sometimes the former have been called camers-back 
bridges, because of the sharp pitch of the approaches 
over the arch. The Chinese seem never to have taken to 
the swing-bridge to allow the passage of boats; and 
wheeled vehicles are so seldom used that they are not 
considered in bridge-building. This is a beautiful arch 
and built according to sound principles of architecture, 
but where did the Chinese get their knowledge of the 
arch ? It is said that the arch originated with the Greeks 
and was developed by the Romans. Yet, in every part 
of China these perfectly arched bridges are found which, 
to all appearances, ante-date both the Roman and the 
Greek periods. This bridge has been erected since the 
Taiping Rebellion. The former structure was destroyed 
at that time, and the place we occupy was the scene of 
a bloody conflict; the forces under Gordon being on the 
farther side of the canal, and the rebels on this side 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 127 

under Burgovine with sixty foreigners and an army two 
hundred thousand strong. The center of this simple, 
graceful arch is over fifty feet above the water, and the 
quality of the masonry shows for itself. People are pass¬ 
ing to and fro while some are seated on the side wall, 
showing that it is probably a rendezvous for loafers. 

Near us, at the edge of the canal, we see women en¬ 
gaged, some in washing clothes, others in washing rice; 
all at the same place and in the same water. It is no un¬ 
common thing to see water for cooking and drinking 
taken from sources impregnated with every form of pollu¬ 
tion. Now that I have mentioned a point against the 
cleanliness of these women, let me call your attention to 
another matter in which they are more particular than 
other women of the same class. These are women of the 
lower class, poor, and engaged in manual drudgery, yet 
you will see their hair is carefully and neatly arranged. 
Chinese women are as careful to possess a tidy coiffure as 
the men are to maintain the integrity of their queues. 
Here again we see family boats, and it is estimated that 
there is a floating population in and around Soo-chow of 
thirty thousand. It is an important center for silk manu¬ 
factures, and no fewer than one hundred thousand women 
are engaged in making embroidery. Many valuable car¬ 
goes of silk are carried in the small boats such as you see; 
notice the one before us, near the bridge at the right with 
a cannon mounted on the bow. This is a protection 
against pirates and other robbers, especially when carry¬ 
ing valuable cargoes of silk. 


128 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


You, of course, know that piracy was very common in 
many parts of the world in the earlier centuries, but that 
in modern times that form of robbery has ceased to exist 
in most countries except China, when primitive modes of 
water transportation, and, indeed, primitive conditions in 
all respects affords opportunity for the pirate to ply his 
nefarious occupation; so that on all the great rivers and 
canals where valuable cargoes pass to and fro a very poor 
and inefficient gun-boat service is maintained by the 
government, and besides this, as I have already shown 
you, cargo-boats have antiquated cannon mounted on 
them for defense as you see the one before us. The death 
penalty by beheading is inflicted on all pirates captured, 
and notwithstanding this extreme deterrent, the inland 
water-ways are still infested with these reckless robbers. 
The Execution Ground at Canton is one of the places 
visited by most travellers. Every few weeks executions 
by beheading occur at that place, and the victims are in 
most cases pirates. I witnessed and made views of the 
beheading of a pirate at Canton; as the scene is too re¬ 
volting for general use it is not included in this series, 
but may be obtained from the publishers. 

I have said that in nearly every representation of a 
Chinese landscape one finds either a camel-back bridge or 
a pagoda; here we have seen the former; now, in order 
to see one of the most interesting of the latter, we will 
travel by boat for several miles, along winding, dark and 
narrow canals, through the city and beyond, to an eleva¬ 
tion of ground called Tiger Hill. On this hill is located 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


I29 


one of the oldest and most famous pagodas of Soo-chow, 
called T,iger Hill Pagoda. 

34. Tiger Hill Pagoda, the “leaning Tower” of Soo- 
chow (1300 Years Old). 

There are seven pagodas in and around this ancient 
literary and commercial center. They are all old by West¬ 
ern chronology, all patriarchal, but the senior member of 
the group, the Methuselah, as Du Bose calls it, is said to 
be 1,650 years old; and the authority for this antiquity is 
Fan Fen Chen Kung, a historian who lived nine hundred 
years ago, who probably had reliable documents for his 
statements. The one before us is no youth, having been 
erected thirteen hundred years ago. You cannot wonder 
it is somewhat stooped, and you see why it is called the 
“ Leaning Tower of Soo-chow.” If the record of its an¬ 
tiquity be correct, and we have no reason to doubt it, it 
stood here when Mahomet was writing the Koran. It is 
called Tiger Hill Pagoda, from a tradition that after the 
death of Hoh Lii, the first King of Soo-chow, a white 
tiger was seen crouching near his grave. This pagoda 
has been out of the perpendicular from time immemorial. 

The pagoda is a monument peculiar to China. Every 
race seems to possess the monument-building instinct; a 
prehistoric race in America built mounds; the Druids had 
their temples; we find the mysterious round-tower in 
Ireland; Egypt has pyramids and obelisks. India, Cey¬ 
lon and Burmah are covered with towers and dagobas, 
and China is said to have two thousand pagodas. No 


130 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


town in China is considered complete without a pagoda. 
Some people think the native faith in the pagoda is dimin¬ 
ishing, as a new one is rarely seen; this might be said of 
bridges, temples and nearly everything in China, because 
everything appears old; disrepair and dilapidation are not 
necessarily evidences of a waning faith in their national 
institutions. 

The purpose of the pagoda is often not well understood 
by foreigners; it is generally supposed to be altogether a 
religious monument. It seems to have had its origin in 
India, where it was wholly a religious temple dedicated to 
the worship of idols which were called pagods, hence the 
name, pagoda. In China the form of the structure gradu¬ 
ally changed from that of a temple to the tall, many- 
storied tower, like the one before us. The purpose of the 
pagoda in China has been changed from that of a place 
set apart wholly for the worship of idols to that of a mixed 
order—that of a religious shrine, and also at the same 
time a temple of geomancy, if I may express it in that 
way. It is supposed to bring peace and the protection of 
Heaven, and to repress all evil influences that may be pe¬ 
culiar to the locality in which it is situated. Geomancy 
prevails everywhere in China, and geomancers are about 
as numerous as beggars and much more respected. I have 
been in quite a number of pagodas, in different parts of 
the country, and I do not remember that I have seen one 
containing idols or occupied by priests; but all apparently 
vacant and left to exert their influence on the surround¬ 
ing country; this is why I prefer to call them temples of 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 131 

geomancy. A simple and more intelligible name would 
be “ good-luck towers.” Do not laugh at their credulity 
and simple faith in geomancy ; there is not much differ¬ 
ence after all; they erect a pagoda and we nail up a horse¬ 
shoe. 

This “ Leaning Tower ” is an unusually large pagoda; 
it consists of tw r o walls or a pagoda within a pagoda, each 
wall being six or seven feet in thickness. It does not ap¬ 
pear so large because our position is several hundred 
yards away at the foot of the hill, which has an elevation 
of some fifty feet, the pagoda being nearly two hundred 
feet in height. I was obliged to retire to this distance to 
obtain a view of the entire structure, and even now the 
first story is not visible. This venerable old pile suffered 
more from the Taipings than from thirteen centuries of 
time. Formerly the hill was covered with fine temples 
and palaces before that rebellion, but since then the once 
magnificent center of “ Beautiful Soo ” has been a wilder¬ 
ness of ruins. 

We will now return for a second time to Shanghai by 
the same kind of native canal-boat in which we came to 
Soo-chow. We cannot afford to remain long in one 
place; the Chinese Empire is a little world in itself, and 
much remains for us yet to explore. 


132 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


JOURNEY UP THE YANG-TSE-KIANG. 

People who visit China should not confine their field of 
observation to seaport towns, as is so frequently done by 
globe-trotters. It is desirable to reach the interior at 
some point. When I returned to Shanghai, from Soo- 
chow, I received a cablegram to proceed up the great 
Yang-tse-Kiang River to Hankow, a distance of six hun¬ 
dred miles (see map of eastern China). It proved a 
lucky cablegram for me; only for its receipt at that time 
I would have been hemmed in with the legations at 
Pekin. In that way my trip up the great river was for¬ 
tunate as well as interesting. Hoping now that our mu¬ 
tual trip to the interior may be equally interesting, we will 
embark on one of those large side-wheel steamboats, such 
as that on which we made our trip to Ningpo. The fare 
is $32.50 for a return ticket. The accommodations are 
as comfortable as on a Hudson River steamer, and we 
shall reach Hankow in three days. The scenery en route 
is interesting, but somewhat monotonous; the valley of the 
Yang-tse-Kiang is a level plain with no great diversity in 
its appearance, and all Chinese towns are alike. One can 
see the hill region in many places, but it is far distant. 
The vast expanse of yellow water dotted with character¬ 
istic junks moves sullenly along at the rate of two and 
one-half miles an hour. Our fellow passengers are a few 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 133 

missionaries with their families who are on their way to 
the hill region to pass the hot summer months. Six or 
eight stops are made between Shanghai and Hankow, and 
then, at the end of three days, our boat makes fast to the 
hull of an old ship. Hulls of ships are used for docks 
and landing stages everywhere on the Yang-tse. We 
have arrived, and as we come on deck this is the scene that 
meets our eyes. 

55 . Coolies Unloading Tea at Hankow, the Great Tea 
Market of Interior China. 

T,his is Hankow, six hundred miles from the sea, and 
undoubtedly the greatest tea market in the world. But it 
is European Hankow, and you have already learned that 
Europeanized cities in China and native cities are very dis¬ 
similar. There are three native cities here, all within 
sight one of another and also lying adjacent to the foreign 
settlement before us; they are Wuchang, on the opposite 
side of the river, and Hanyang and Hankow, lying near 
together on this side. It has been estimated that the three 
cities embrace a population of several millions. Hankow 
signifies, in Chinese, the mouth of commerce. It is, in¬ 
deed, a great commercial center. The river is navigable 
for men-of-war and the largest ocean steamers up to this 
point. When I stood here a huge three-funnel merchant 
steamer from Odessa, Russia’s great port on the Black 
Sea, lay at anchor in midstream. Russians are the great¬ 
est tea-drinkers in Europe, and they drink Chinese teas 
almost exclusively. Ships from all parts of the world 


134 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

come here for tea; so, I think, for gigantic tea-parties 
Hankow holds the record. Do you see the tea being dis¬ 
charged from the ship on which we stand? Our steamer 
brought a cargo from a point down the river to this place 
for transshipment, or possibly to be first transformed or 
pressed into what is called brick-tea. Should we go 
ashore a little distance from this shipping front, we would 
see many places where tea is pressed into hard bricks, 
chiefly for shipment to Russia, although the best grades of 
tea are not put up in this manner. Though this is the 
most important tea center in the world, I want to tell you 
that the nearest point where tea is grown is one hundred 
miles from Hankow. This is merely a great shipping 
entrepot. Tea is brought here from the hill and moun¬ 
tain districts, where it is grown; it is brought from 
smaller ports up and down the river to Hankow, where it 
is sometimes repacked and sent to all parts of the world. 
There are many docks such as this where lines of bare¬ 
footed, bareheaded, and sometimes barebacked coolies 
form a ceaseless line between the ships and the “ go- 
downs,” carrying chests of tea and uttering their weird, 
dolorous cry, which they think distracts the mind from the 
burden. You cannot see an European among all those 
natives. The tea is now altogether in the hands of China¬ 
men ; from these landing “ go-downs ” it will be carried 
to the hongs , as business places are called in the East. 
These chests of tea do not look exactly familiar; they are 
differently marked from those we are accustomed to see in 
our markets. Much of the tea used in America is from 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 135 

Japan, and besides, teas from different parts of China are 
marked differently. Have you noticed how high that 
bank of the river is? I was greatly surprised to learn 
that at this place the difference between high and low 
water is often forty feet and over, sometimes reaching and 
flooding the streets above. It has an annual overflow 
resembling that of the Nile. I think you have not dis¬ 
covered that each coolie carries a small stick in his hand; 
they have a simple but a very infallible way of checking 
off the number of packages discharged; after the ancient 
fashion, each coolie delivers with each package a tally- 
stick to a tally-man on shore. The coolies generally have 
neither honesty nor arithmetic; but they can carry a tally- 
stick, which is a substitute for both. Not many in the 
West would like to carry these chests of tea ten hours a 
day in the hot sun at ten cents a day! Yet this is “ how 
the other half lives.” 

Let us go ashore, ascend those forty steps, turn to the 
right a hundred yards, and we will face a pretty plaza, 
which, overlooking the river, is called the Bund. 

56 . View Along the Bund from Municipal Council 
Building, Hankow . 

This scene is not only full of beauty; it is full of life 
and instruction. The beauty of those buildings and rows 
of trees with well-kept lawns and walks and well-paved 
streets is enhanced by the recollection that it is in the heart 
of China, six hundred miles from the sea. I expected to 
find a few Europeans here, but not this charming vista of 


136 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

modern buildings and beautified grounds. I expected 
Western conditions at Shanghai, but not at Hankow. We 
are looking eastward and down the river; behind this line 
of trees, on our right, is another promenade, overlooking 
the broad river and some fifty feet above it, flanked by a 
protecting wall. Long flights of stone steps lead down to 
steamboat landings at different places. T.he great river is 
here nearly a mile in width, full of life and activity. It is 
instructive to know that this state of affairs has been es¬ 
tablished here since 1858, when, by the treaty of Nankin, 
Hankow became an open port. The native quarter is 
very unlike this; it is, as I have remarked of other native 
cities, redolent of every known and unknown odor and 
teeming with filthy myriads of human life. I was told 
that several Chinese gentlemen of Hankow made an effort 
to persuade their fellow townsmen to attempt to model the 
native city in some measure after the European Settle¬ 
ment, but the proposition met with so little favor that it 
was given up. To change the ways of the masses of the 
Chinese people promises to be a “ steady job.” Here 
again, we see few, if any, Europeans; this will be par¬ 
tially explained if you notice the shortness of the shadows 
cast by those figures in the foreground; I mean that you 
may see it is near midday, when Europeans, in hot 
weather, are seldom on the streets; but the whole place is 
animated with coolies, many of them pole-coolies, as they 
are called, because nearly all transportation is done by 
them by means of these poles. One coolie will carry a 
hundred-weight on each end of one of these poles. A 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 137 

coolie holds his carry-pole in great esteem, for it is his 
means of livelihood. We are here standing on the bal¬ 
cony of the T.own Hall, and when I attempted to make this 
view the people near at hand fled as though Mara (Chi¬ 
nese Pluto) had suddenly arisen in their midst; a “ Fang- 
qwei ” with a camera is scarcely less dreaded. This street 
immediately below us was entirely vacated. The idea oc¬ 
curred to me that if I should cast a handful of cash down 
into the street, cupidity might overcome superstition and 
bring the coolies close again. I have previously explained 
to you that seventeen cash are equal to one cent and make 
a good handful. I gave to my native porter a handful of 
cash and explained to him how, at a given time, he must 
throw the cash to the coolies below. I returned to an inner 
room to prepare my apparatus, and when I returned and 
asked my porter where the cash was he replied: “ Coolie 
have got.” T,he stupid fellow T , not understanding my di¬ 
rections, had thrown them to the street in my absence; 
but they had served a good purpose, for, by this time, the 
street was full as you see it now, all eager and expectant. 
I threw another handful, which was instantly followed by 
a chaos of heads, heels, poles, prostrations, “ flip-flips ” 
and somersaults. When there was a partial restoration 
to mental and physical equipoise, and when they had be¬ 
come engaged, seemingly, in conference as to whether an¬ 
other shower of hard cash was to be expected and whether 
a madman or a veritable Carnegie had arrived in the for¬ 
eign settlement, I manipulated my camera. 

When I first reached Hankow I supposed I was in the 


138 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

heart of the tea-growing region; but I soon learned I 
could not reach the nearest plantation without a tedious 
journey of a hundred miles; and that this journey must 
be made in a house-boat, through canals and inland 
lakes and rivers for eighty miles, and then, when I 
reached the mountains, the last part of the trip, some 
twenty miles, would have to be made in a sedan chair 
carried by coolies. The worst feature of the adventure 
was the hostility of the people in the province through 
which the journey lay, for at this time the Boxer up¬ 
rising was agitating the usual bitterness toward foreign¬ 
ers into frenzied aggressiveness. But I decided to make 
the attempt, and a companion was deemed indispensable. 
The American Vice-Consul found a fearless and adven¬ 
turous young man, son of ex-Consul Childs, who was 
quite willing to accompany me for the sport of hunting 
on the way. This young fellow was powerful and brave 
almost to recklessness, and, as he said, any half-dozen 
Boxers would only be “ Child’s ” play for him. We at 
once set to work to prepare for the trip; he furnished one 
double-barreled breech-loading shot-gun and a Martini- 
Henri rifle, with an abundance of ammunition; he also 
engaged from a friend of his, a Russian merchant, a 
suitable house-boat with sleeping accommodations; later 
I will show you the boat. Next, we engaged a crew, 
consisting of a captain, four coolies, a cook and an in¬ 
terpreter. We went to a native grocery and laid in a 
supply of provisions, such as we could get—chiefly 
canned goods and several dozen bottles of soda-water— 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 139 

we knew drinking-water would be difficult to find. Mr. 
Childs said we must take a couple of bottles of whisky, 
because he was acquainted with a mandarin up the river 
who was fond of it, and that his favor was worth two 
bottles; I remonstrated that one bottle was enough for 
one mandarin. “Yes,” he replied, “but we may find 
another mandarin ”; and so we did. Our grocery supply 
cost fifteen dollars; it included several loaves of settlement 
bread. Only “ cash ” is known in the rural districts; 
silver is worthless. I gave our cook five Mexican dol¬ 
lars to be exchanged for “ cash.” He returned with a 
back-load all strung on strings, about one dollar’s worth 
on each, the five straps weighing thirty pounds; this is 
no exaggeration; because the spectacle of our cook re¬ 
turning with thirty pounds of coin hung over his shoul¬ 
ders and around his neck was so ludicrous that I weighed 
a one dollar strap, which was just six pounds. A very 
brief and limited shopping expedition in a native town 
necessitates a coolie with a wheelbarrow to carry the 
change. After much preparatory running back and 
forth, we sailed near eleven o’clock at night. Our house¬ 
boat was fitted with sail, but, in the absence of wind, 
it must be towed by hand by means of long lines from 
the shore. A light night breeze carried us across the 
river, where the coolies went ashore with the tow-line 
and towed through the night while we essayed to sleep 
in our new and confined quarters. When we arose in 
the morning we found we had made little progress up 
the great river, Hankow being still plainly in sight; 


140 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


some time before noon we reached Kinkow, an important 
town on the Yang-tse only about twenty miles from our 
starting-place; here we entered a canal or creek which 
connects the Yang-tse with a small lake some twenty 
miles inland. Now let us go ashore just for an oppor¬ 
tunity to look at our house-boat. 

37 . Travelling in Interior China—Our House-boat on 
a Canal near Kinkow (600 Miles Inland). 

Here is the house-boat with my companions and crew, 
all on deck. I need not designate my companion; his 
neglige betrays him. My captain stands at his right, 
his high rank and authority indicated by what appears 
to be, according to rustic parlance, a “ boiled shirt.” 
Our cook left us at this place, becoming suspicious we 
might never return, and our interpreter, who is clad 
in black, assumed the duties of the runaway cook. The 
coolies skulk behind and turn away their faces, fearing 
the camera. You see the door leading into our little 
cabin, which had a table in the center and a seat on either 
side used for a bed at night. The cook’s quarters are 
behind the cabin. Our evening retreat, when the mos¬ 
quitoes would permit, was on that spacious forecastle 
where the crew are now assembled. I fear there are 
many archaic devices about this boat which you will fail 
to notice. Have you observed the wrought-iron, hand¬ 
made anchor projecting over the bow, consisting of four 
radiating hooks? Have you observed the detached rud¬ 
der suspended at one side and beyond it a cross-bar pro- 


China through the stereoscope. 141 

jecting a little over the free-board? On the end of this 
a large sculling oar is placed to propel the boat when 
away from the shore or when becalmed in deep water, 
where poles cannot be used. Have you observed the 
pike-poles and the gang-plank? I am sure that within 
the cabin and in the cooking department are curious 
things you cannot see. There is a pantry and a store- 
room all in that small place. It is not an Atlantic liner; 
but withal, it left with me memories more interesting 
than those obtained from the floating palaces of the sea. 
An itinerant barber has come out from Kinkow, not far 
away, to prospect our ship. Do not imagine the barber 
and his client are the only spectators. A vast crowd 
has been purposely held back from our boat. 

You may get some idea of the character of the soil and 
the appearance of the country near the river. The whole 
valley is alluvial, and in its fertility and freedom from 
stones reminds me of the valley of the Nile. You can 
see the height of the banks, showing the depth of the 
soil, and the canal, which was originally a creek or river, 
is here quite deep, and this continues until we reach the 
high lands. A typical craft from the interior, propelled 
by a large sculling oar on one side of the boat, is pass¬ 
ing down on the other side; it is probably on its way 
down to Hangkow or other of the great near-by cities, 
with farm produce. There is a house on the other side, 
but it is hidden by trees, so that we can see little of it. 

But we must go aboard our house-boat and order 
our captain to start. You may know by the glossy sur- 


142 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

face of the water that there is no breeze for our sails; 
therefore, the tow-line is thrown out, the gang-plank is 
hauled in and we move slowly on our way. Our meek 
little cook had prepared for us a breakfast that would 
satisfy anyone but a man who has no business to travel; 
and now he was busy in the galley, which was, indeed, 
more a hole than a galley, preparing our second meal. 
When it was on the table it quite astonished us, and 
while we ate we eulogized the cook and made, I fear, 
some unflattering remarks about French chefs. In the 
afternoon we reached a beautiful lake some twenty miles 
across. A light breeze, at times, enabled us to use our 
sail, and when the wind failed the coolies resorted to 
the cumbersome sculling oars. We made the farther 
side of the lake a little after nightfall, where we entered a 
second canal, in which we tied up, our crew not being 
able to work continuously day and night. On the fol¬ 
lowing day, after we had been several hours in this canal, 
we entered a small fishing village where the banks of 
the canal were lined with villagers of both sexes in 
charge of “ lift-nets.” This lift-net may be seen in every 
port of China; it consists of a horizontal net about twen¬ 
ty feet square, attached to a bamboo frame-work pro¬ 
jecting over the water from the shore; it is lowered and 
raised from the shore, and each net requires one at¬ 
tendant ; it is lowered until it sinks to the bottom, where 
it remains for a time, or until fish have assembled over 
it, when it is raised for a draught of them. This was a 
novel and interesting scene and we ran our house-boat 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


M3 


ashore, thinking to obtain a view of the villagers in their 
droll piscatory vocation. We landed and returned along 
the bank near the line of nets. I planted my camera in a 
suitable position, when, instantly, along the whole line, 
they left their nets and came pell-mell toward us and 
around us. Our attempt was, of course, obstructed. 
We called our “ boy ” (every servant is called a “ boy ” 
in the East) to persuade them to stand away from the 
camera; his appeal had no effect; their curiosity in¬ 
creased and the crowd increased; they at once showed 
an unfriendly manner; one fellow landed from a boat 
and came strutting forward with an air of importance 
and authority and lifted the cloth of the camera to see 
what was under it. I took it out of his hands and mo¬ 
tioned him back; he straightened up, swelled his chest, 
compressed his lips and dove his head under the cloth; 
no self-respecting photographer can brook any liberties 
with his apparatus. I squelched his officious and imperti¬ 
nent meddlesomeness with more vigor than politeness. 
He swelled up in importance again, but kept two yards 
off; his dignity was damaged; he looked vengeance and 
sneeringly cried out, “ Fanqwei! fanqwei! ” There was 
no possibility of getting a picture, the crowd was rapidly 
increasing, and the half-mile line of nets was deserted. 
Our boy said, “Very bad people here!” We had not 
brought along our guns, and we concluded it would be 
better to be nearer our defenses. We started for our 
boat; but no sooner had we emerged from the crowd 
than we were greeted by a volley of mud and lumps of 


144 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


clay (there were no stones). We ducked and dodged all 
the way back. Dodging missiles from Chinamen was a 
humiliation to which we had not been accustomed. In 
a mood to even up honors, we brought our guns on 
deck and donned our cartridge belts; there was a silent 
but hurried retreat all along the line. I gave Childs 
my gun to carry, took my camera, went on shore and 
we advanced to the place from which we had retreated: 
but like the clans of Culloden, “ they were scattered in 
flight.” I took my view, but it sadly lacked life in the 
foreground. This showed, as has been shown in a thou¬ 
sand other instances, that the Chinese lack the fighting 
instinct, or, in other words, that they are cowards; but 
sometimes will fight a little with ten to one. We came 
off ahead, but it might have been otherwise, only for 
the alluvial soil which offered no stones. Childs said, 
on our return, that he had heard of the “ Battle of the 
Roses,” but he had never anticipated a “ Battle of Mud.” 
This was evidently an unfriendly village and we did not 
care to linger. Certain villages are friendly and others 
unfriendly. A village is often composed of a clan, or 
family line, where one disposition characterizes the whole 
village; here we had fallen in with an anti-foreign breed 
and as soon as we reached our boat, our order to the 
captain was: “ Wcilkee, walkee, chop, chop!” (Start at 
once). 

Our coolies kept tugging at the tow-line until, some 
time in the afternoon, when we spied a typical native 
plowman quite near the bank of the canal. He had a 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 145 

queer, home-made wooden plow attached to a grim and 
vicious-looking water-buffalo. It was a capital speci¬ 
men of a rustic plowman, and I decided to go ashore 
for a stereograph. I placed my instrument at the point 
of his nearest approach; when within about twenty paces 
the buffalo halted; I knew something about the idiosyn¬ 
crasies of a water-buffalo, and that when he stops to 
look at a foreigner, something is going to happen. The 
plowman himself was nearly as much bewildered as the 
buffalo—was not only bewildered but afraid; he lacked 
the bravery of the fishermen; he had no crowd at his 
back; he walloped the suspicious beast with the drive- 
rope ; it would not budge. I saw it was “ now or never.” 
I put my head under the camera cloth; this, to the buf¬ 
falo- mind, was horror added to the horrible—a foreigner 
behind an infernal machine! It was a snort and a lunge; 
the plowman went down; the buffalo went off as if fired 
from a catapult; a cloud of dust arose; the plow flew 
from side to side and over its back; the beast’s terror 
was increased by shouts of laughter from Childs and the 
crew; his speed increased with his increasing terror; the 
plowman, glad of an excuse to run away from us, pur¬ 
sued like mad. The poor beast was soon far in the dis¬ 
tance, enveloped in a cloud of dust; it was a level plain, 
and the last we saw of the water-buffalo was a black 
spot in the horizon, with a whisking crescent over his 
back made by the flying plow. I failed in getting the 
stereograph, but succeeded in getting a laugh. On our 
return trip several days later, we recognized the same 


146 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

field and saw that no plowing had been done in the 
meantime. We wondered whether the buffalo had yet 
stopped. 

During the afternoon we came to a point where the 
canal expanded into a marsh and lake. At one side of 
this marshy plain, a large town was located on a hill¬ 
side, extending down to the edge of the water. We saw 
banners flying and a great assemblage of people cover¬ 
ing the side of the slope, and decorated boats seemed 
to fill the broad stream before the town. Our boy ex¬ 
plained that it was the day of the dragon festival. This 
is one of the most important fete days in China. It is 
not a good day to be in a Chinese crowd in a remote 
and hostile province; but we thought we would expe¬ 
rience no difficulty in making our way past the town in 
our boat. Boat-racing is an important feature of the 
day; several boats curiously decorated and filled with 
men rowing with short paddles, dashed back and forth 
before the town. While these picturesque race-boats 
were passing and repassing, I stood on the bow of our 
little boat attempting to catch views as we moved 
through among them. This seemed to attract the at¬ 
tention of the great crowds on the shore, who com¬ 
menced to set up a derisive yell, which is quite peculiar 
and as distinguishable as the Indian’s war-whoop. A 
Chinese crowd, like any other crowd, is always more in¬ 
flammable and aggressive on a holiday, and a vast as¬ 
semblage greatly augments individual courage, especial¬ 
ly among Chinamen. We halted for a while to witness 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 147 

the strange proceedings; the jeers increased; then came 
a shower of mud; next a volley of stones; several waded 
into the water up to their waists around our boat; an¬ 
other volley of stones nearly demolished our cabin win¬ 
dow. At this we jumped into our little cabin and 
brought out our guns and slipped in cartridges; with 
this threat those in the water moved back a little; the 
jeers increased, and a hundred voices were shouting, 
“ Fanqwei! fanqwei! ” and punctuating their raillery 
with stones. We ordered our captain to move on; our 
crew at this point were all on board and propelling the 
boat with the sculls. The missiles came so furiously at 
one time, that Childs leveled his gun, when I called to 
him not to shoot. Fortunately, at this point, we were 
thirty or forty paces from the shore on which the en¬ 
raged mob stood, while the number in the water near us, 
on the opposite side, were held back only by our guns; 
our coolies were as glad as we to get away from this 
ugly and cowardly band. We ducked stones and urged 
on the coolies. The mob followed for a half-mile along 
the shore, shouting, no doubt, all manner of ribaldry, 
but foreign devil was all we could understand. We 
soon entered a small lake where they could no longer 
follow, but until we were out of sight we could hear their 
peculiar yell of derision. 

We anchored late that night in the canal, and got away 
by daylight in the morning, that we might make the 
end of our boat journey, some ten miles farther, and 
have the whole day for the last twenty miles, which must 


148 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

be made in chairs. At nine o’clock in the forenoon 
we came to a few houses scattered along the bank of the 
canal; here we must debark and find sedan chairs; they 
could only be obtained in a town five miles away. Two 
of our coolies were dispatched in haste; they returned 
near noon with chairs and chair-coolies. We had vict¬ 
uals for two days in readiness. Guns, ammunition, 
camera, etc., were packed in the chair. Our “ boy ” 
must go afoot with several straps of cash over his shoul¬ 
der—cash to buy eggs in the country, to buy hot water, 
to mollify the mercenary—cash was our only credential, 
and the “ boy ” had yet nearly thirty pounds on his back, 
the equivalent of five Mexican dollars, or two and one- 
half dollars in American money. 

We had now reached the foothills of the mountain 
region. Twenty miles is a good ride in a carriage; it 
is a long journey in a sedan chair, in a rough mountain 
district, where there are no roads, where one has to pass 
many villages, through countless rice-fields on narrow 
mud dykes, along rocky declivities and up steep slopes. 
Our chairs were of the rustic order, made of bamboo 
suspended on bamboo poles ten feet long. The teeter¬ 
ing sensation was not disagreeable; but there were other 
sensations. All persons do not know that a rice-field 
is, at times, a pond of water, at other times a pool of 
mud. These fields are separated by ridges of clay some¬ 
times a foot, sometimes two feet above the mud or 
water. To pass around the corners of the mud-fields, 
on narrow ridges, without being precipitated into the 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 149 

mud, was the most precarious part of our journey, and 
in this we did not quite succeed. I would surely be 
charged with exaggeration should I attempt to say how 
many times our chair-coolies were pitched over the nar¬ 
row dyke into the deep mire while attempting to turn 
the sharp angles, we ourselves only escaping a mud- 
bath by clambering to the treacherous path till the 
coolies could be extricated. During the afternoon we 
stopped in the outskirts of a village for lunch. We were, 
of course, at once surrounded by curious villagers who 
showed no unfriendliness, but were greatly interested in 
our modern firearms, and Childs entertained them by 
bringing down birds from the highest treetops. Only 
one incident occurred here worth relating, an incident 
which shows how tricky and unscrupulous the Chinese 
are in ways of extorting money. An old woman hurried 
into our presence leading a child and affecting great dis¬ 
tress of mind; a stream of blood was trickling over the 
child’s face from a scalp wound. She showed us the 
wound and, jabbering explanations, pointed to our guns, 
intimating we had shot her child. My companion broke 
into a roar of laughter and showed how we had been 
shooting altogether in an opposite direction and away 
from the village in which she lived. The natives about 
us saw the shooting and also laughed at the woman’s 
stupid and futile scheme to obtain money. The trifling 
scalp wound was maternally inflicted and her plan proved 
a bungling and unsuccessful bit of blackmail. 


150 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

This was the first village in which we had found the 
inhabitants friendly. The chair-coolies got a feed of rice 
from the villagers, and we ate our lunch hemmed in 
by a staring group of onlookers, which was not alto¬ 
gether agreeable, because one is liable at any moment 
to be colonized by a drift of eleemosynary insects from 
leeward, and this prospect is somewhat de-appetizing. 
Another plain of rice fields lay before us which involved 
unpleasant liabilities and greatly retarded our progress. 
But we got across with a single catastrophe. I heard, 
proceeding from Childs, who was behind me, great vol¬ 
umes of thrice-underscored English. I looked back 
and saw one of his coolies submerged in the liquid soil, 
the other at the front, upon the ridge of clay. The mud 
just reached the seat of the chair and my friend sat quite 
helpless, holding his gun out of the mud with one hand 
and projecting his feet upward. The dilemma was only 
for a moment, as his loud and intensive language worked 
as an explosion of dynamite and brought the submerged 
coolie to the surface and, presto, to the path. As usual, 
there was no damage except to the coolie’s clothes, and 
that was not serious, as they consisted only of “ one- 
piece shirt.” A great part of our journey by chair thus 
far had been across these rice fields, or “ sloughs of de¬ 
spond,” as Childs called them, but now we had reached 
the first mountain slope. We rested a few minutes at a 
wayside inn, where our coolies regaled themselves with 
tea. We found tea-stands every few miles. In many 
places the tea stood at the door as a sort of a free-lunch 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 151 

trap for wayfarers; in other places it must be paid for 
at the rate of a “ cash ” a cup. The cups are small and 
five or six of them would scarcely equal in quantity an 
American “ schooner ”; besides tea, about the only drink 
to be obtained at these inns, is “ sam shui,” a sort of 
home-made wine. Western whiskies and other civilized 
death-dealing and fiend-producing decoctions are un¬ 
known in these rural districts. 

Late in the afternoon we were among the lower moun¬ 
tain slopes and scattering patches of tea plants began to 
appear. It was up a steep mountain side, over a crest 
and down again into a table-land covered with patches 
of paddy (growing rice in Eastern countries is called 
paddy) until nightfall, when we entered a broad, fertile 
valley watered by a small river. 

Darkness overtook us and we had yet several miles 
to go before we reached our destination at a place called 
Matin. Our chair-bearers had become considerably ex¬ 
hausted and stopped frequently to rest at places on the 
wayside, where curious rustics would peer around us in 
the darkness, sometimes thrusting their faces under the 
front of our covered chairs. Our surroundings were now 
becoming weird and dismal. Our men sometimes left us 
for a few minutes to quench their thirst at some tea¬ 
house; we could hear persons passing and repassing in 
the darkness. 

Once we became separated for an hour; Childs’s men 
had taken a different path. Mine waited in a farm-yard 
till our boy had brought in Childs; meantime, I sat in 


152 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

my chair surrounded by bogey-men; some came with 
paper lanterns which they held up before me to get a 
look at a “ foreign devil.” My companion had both 
guns in his chair; when he was brought back we ap¬ 
portioned our armament and resolved not to become 
separated again; we knew now we had no house-boat to 
fall back upon and trusted we might not fall into a 
dragon-festival crowd. Not till near ten o’clock that 
night did we reach the town of Matin. Our chair-coolies 
bore us through narrow, winding alleys for a great dis¬ 
tance. The streets were dimly lighted with paper and 
tin lanterns and we were set down in the heart of a 
strange town in the Province of Hunan, we were told, 
but from subsequent examination of maps I believe we 
were just on the boundary between the provinces of 
Hupeh and Kiangsi (see map of Eastern China, Map 
No. 2). 

At once we were surrounded by the usual crowd of 
night-prowlers of every description. We had no idea 
where we could spend the night. We told our boy to 
ask some one to take us to the mandarin. The news 
of our arrival, even though late at night, spread rapidly; 
the street was soon a solid mass of struggling humanity; 
it was difficult for our chair-men to make any headway 
in such a crowd. They clung to the sides of our chairs 
and peered in at us; they trampled each other down. 
It had a good effect when they learned we were to go 
to the mandarin’s. Our “ boy ” and the chair-coolies 
slowly wedged their way, by inches, through the dense 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 153 

mass. The mandarin’s palace (?) was a half-mile away; 
and after we emerged from the crowd it followed us to 
the door of the buildings said to contain the high func¬ 
tionary we sought. It required several minutes of pound¬ 
ing at a great wooden door before any response came; 
at last some one, I suppose a servant, arrived. Our in¬ 
structions to our “ boy ” were about as follows: “Tell 
the good mandarin we are Americans, come to see Chi¬ 
nese Tea-man—have no place to sleep—will good man¬ 
darin let us sleep any place inside his palace?” It 
should be remembered our “ boy ” could speak only a 
little English. We waited long for a reply and the 
crowd around us at the door was constantly increasing. 
When the reply came it was not very encouraging. It 
was: “ Mandarin cannot do.” Childs, who knew the 
mandarin character pretty well, said he thought a 
stronger appeal was necessary—that we must see the 
mandarin himself; so, to get out of the crowd, by sheer 
effrontery, we pressed within the outer door; but the 
crowd followed. 

After much wrangling and persuasion by a number of 
mandarinish flunkies, the crowd was pressed back and 
the door made fast. Childs with his gun, accompanied 
our “ boy ” into the presence of His Excellency and stated 
the urgency of our case,—that there was no hotel; that 
there were plenty bad men outside; that our hong at 
Hankow “ makee ” buy plenty tea; these and numerous 
other necessitous lies induced the mandarin, after a full 
half-hour of talking, to allow us to sleep in an empty 


J 54 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


room. The servants found two rough doors for us to 
sleep upon. We were too glad to be within walls to 
complain of a bed of hard boards, and after a midnight 
repast we stretched out upon our doors to await the 
strange disclosures of the coming dawn. 

I have spoken of the mandarin as “ His Excellency/’ 
and of his domicile as the palace; but there did not appear 
to be any excellent qualities about him or anything pala¬ 
tial about his residence. He was ordinary in appearance, 
stupid and boorish in manner, devoid of hospitality and 
actuated alone by suspicion. His home was a tile- 
roofed, one-story agglomeration of sheds made of sun- 
dried brick without and finished within in the crudest 
fashion with hand-sawed lumber. He was plainly a 
country mandarin. 

When we arose in the morning we found the town of 
Matin situated in a beautiful and well-cultivated valley, 
flanked by lofty, near-by hills with towering mountains in 
the distance. The valley was checkered with paddy fields, 
and on the hillsides were patches of tea alternating with 
shrubbery. The tea plantations were a great disappoint¬ 
ment to me; they consisted of only small, stunted bushes 
twelve or fourteen inches high, in scattered patches that 
were worthless as showing a typical tea plantation. Con¬ 
siderable quantities of tea were brought in and pressed at 
this place. I have been in many tea plantations in India, 
in Ceylon and in Japan, and I considered the plantation at 
this place unworthy a photographic reproduction; but I 
felt I must go out on the hillsides to look around and 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 155 

possibly make a view. The first crop of tea had been 
picked, and no tea-pickers were in the field. 

I thought a group of tea-picking girls with their tea- 
baskets would be an improvement to the landscape. So 
we set our “ boy ” with the mandarin’s servants at work 
to hire a group to go out with their baskets. This we 
found to be difficult of accomplishment, because of the 
strange suspicions that seemed at once to fill the minds of 
the whole people. After long persuasion and offering 
tempting straps of “ cash,” a few girls were assembled for 
the field. Then the mandarin decided to go out also; but 
he was under the impression that we were tea-merchants. 
When that “ thing of evil,” the camera, was brought out all 
was changed; the mandarin sneaked back into his quarters; 
the tea-pickers, one after another, gradually disappeared. 
National suspiciousness had overpowered them all; we 
were there for some evil purpose, they thought. We left 
our guns in our room to lull fear and suspicion, but the 
camera was an omen of evil to be dreaded even more than 
our Martini-Henri rifle. In profound disgust we started 
off for the hillsides, followed by a motley rabble of boys 
and men. We reached the foothills, where we looked 
down upon what you may see also. 

38. Paddy Fields and Group of Jeering Natives at 
Matin, 700 Miles Inland, Kiangsi Province. 

One portion of the crowd following us is there on the 
bridge; another squad is on the hillside, toward the right, 
beyond the range of our vision. I made several attempts 


156 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

before this view was taken to stereograph this band of 
rustics at close quarters, but failed, because, although 
sadly lacking in intelligence, they seemed to know the 
business front of a camera and scattered with the slightest 
turn in their direction; but at this distance they do not 
imagine their pictures can be taken. This is an exceed¬ 
ingly interesting scene; in the first place, because it is in 
the heart of China; in the second place, because it is in 
the mountain region where tea is grown; and besides, it 
shows you paddy or rice fields which I had occasion to 
mention, but could not show you en route. Here, in the 
interior, we see again the typical arched bridge, such as 
we saw at Soo-chow; but this has two arches, with only 
one in sight. I have seen beautiful bridges in China with 
over fifty arches; as usual, this bridge is made for foot- 
passers only and is approached by steps. You see, too, 
the stream that irrigates the valley, flooding the paddy 
fields; it might be called the purveyor for the whole popu¬ 
lation. Can we wonder that the Chinese, in their poly¬ 
theism, give a prominent place to Pingee, the river-god? 
You see this fluvial fertilizer sparkling again in the dis¬ 
tance where the hills draw near together. 

Do you know that rice is one of the most valuable, in¬ 
dispensable and universal food products in the world? 
The Encyclopaedia Britannica places it second to wheat, 
but I refuse to accept that so-called high authority on any 
statement so obviously erroneous. Europe and the 
Americas are the chief wheat-eating countries of the 
world, and China alone has a greater population than all; 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 157 

and China is a country whose food staple is rice. Then 
we must remember that the vast population of Africa and 
the other parts of Asia, with the East Indies, are essen¬ 
tially rice-eating peoples. This is why I presume to say, 
on my own authority, that rice is the most important and 
universal food product in the world. Here we see it 
growing in patches, inclosed by ridges of soil and flooded 
with water. You probably know that rice is an aquatic 
plant and is supposed to be a native of India, although 
there are kinds that will grow on high lands. It is sown 
in mud or water, and when it has grown to be eight or 
ten inches high it is transplanted, as you see it in these 
fields. 

From the appearance of this field you can now under¬ 
stand the difficulties we encountered on our journey in 
traversing paddy fields for miles along those narrow 
ridges in sedan-chairs, and especially in turning those 
angles. 

Those mountains are all tea-lands as far as you can 
see, although there is no tea in sight except a little line of 
stunted bushes close down on our right. The tea-plant 
does not like the vicinity of salt water, but thrives best in 
mountain air and mountain soil. These peasants do not 
seem to differ in appearance from those we have seen in 
other localities; they wear the queue; their heads are 
shaven; some are half nude; some wear trousers with 
shirts outside; some are barefoot and some are shod, and 
all are impudent in a cowardly fashion. 

We will descend from the slope on which we stand, 


158 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

cross the bridge and continue directly across the valley, 
followed by the gang on the hillside above us and those at 
the bridge, till we reach the opposite slopes, where we will 
ascend to a height which will enable us to look back across 
the valley almost toward the place we here occupy. 
While we are making that short distance of about a half 
mile that native escort will, from a distance in the rear, 
continue to utter their shouts of mockery and their taunt¬ 
ing yells. 

59 . Paddy Fields, Farm Houses and Patches of Tea 
at Matin, Kiangsi Province, among the Moun¬ 
tains of Interior China. 

Before we had reached a considerable elevation the rab¬ 
ble following had been increased by a contingent from the 
town,—a more belligerent element. No sooner was my 
camera placed for this view than several small stones fell 
'around us; it was not easy to ascertain the individuals 
throwing them. Many of them carried sticks and some 
poles. One bold fellow advanced, and with a pole up¬ 
lifted threatened to smash my camera. Childs stood near 
with a heavy stone in each hand and held them in check 
until this stereograph was hurriedly taken. During this 
time a heavy clod from some one in the rear of the 
crowd landed on the camera, but did no serious damage. 
They were emboldened by the fact that we had no weap¬ 
ons of defense, not even sticks. We had expected the 
mandarin to accompany us, and so left our guns at the 
palace. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 159 

We need not, however, let the rabble disturb our enjoy¬ 
ment of the landscape. Our faithful servant is before us 
and looks off into space, as though he were unconscious 
of the cowardly demonstration taking place behind him, 
and that by his own countrymen. Two small bushes of 
tea are just at our feet; these near specimens will show 
how miserably stunted were the tea-plants in this region. 
You may see a patch farther down the mountain-side; 
the mountain on the other side of the valley had only such 
patches as these scattered here and there among the slopes. 
It does not follow that tea in all parts of China is like this; 
we were only unfortunate in getting into a region where 
the plantations were poor, and a typical tea-picking scene 
could not be found. In the distance you see mountains 
of considerable size; they are the same over which 
we passed on our way to this place and over which we 
must return. It looks like a formidable journey for our 
poor chair-coolies. We shall start at noon, and we must 
traverse those mountains again and reach our house-boat, 
twenty miles away, before we can sleep to-night. Look 
now at those farm houses down below. Everybody wants 
to Iknow how a country house in the interior of China 
looks. You may know as much about it now as I do 
after all my trouble. It cost me hardship, deprivation and 
no inconsiderable sum of money. Are they loghouses, 
framehouses, stonehouses, mudhouses or what? Are the 
roofs of tin, thatch, tiles or shingles? Can you see 
smoke issuing from chimneys? No, there are no chim¬ 
neys ; the houses are of brick; the roofs are of tile; there 


l6o CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

are two groups of farm houses. Do you imagine they 
rear litters of edible kittens in those houses? I scarcely 
think they do in the country. No doubt, if we could see 
within those houses, there would be many things in the 
ways of the Chinaman which would seem very strange 
to us. 

As soon as our view was made we started for the town, 
and as we turned Childs received a heavy stone on the 
shoulder; it might have disabled a less powerful man. 
The blow from the stone angered my companion and he 
charged the whole crowd. It scattered, but as he re¬ 
turned he was followed by a volley of stones. As we had 
done before, we retreated, dodging stones as we did so. 
We finally got out of reach and returned to the house of 
the mandarin, the inhospitable home of the lord of the 
town, in which our bed had been a door and our food a 
stone. Our reception in Matin had not created in us a 
wish for a long sojourn, but rather a somewhat ardent 
desire to reach our house-boat as soon as possible. We 
shook the dust from off our feet —much dust — and by 
midday were in our sedans again with twenty miles of cir¬ 
cuitous mountain trails and paddy-pools before us. I will 
not relate our experience on the return trip, except to say 
that at the last town, within five miles of our boat, our 
chair-bearers left us in total darkness surrounded by a 
dense gathering of the usual type, while they regaled their 
chums with tea in some teahouse. Our “ boy ” could 
not induce them to forsake their pals, and there we sat, 
knowing all the while that we were in unsafe quarters. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. l6l 

At last, in sheer desperation, we gathered our guns and 
traps together and commanded our “ boy ” to guide us out 
of the town on foot. We started through a dark alley, 
and soon encountered a savage volley of stones. My 
camera received one stone and still bears the mark. After 
tedious groping, in imminent peril of broken heads, we 
reached the open field. We had walked a mile, when our 
coolies, hearing that we had left them and afraid of for¬ 
feiting their pay, hurried on and overtook us. We 
reached our boat about ten o’clock at night, weary and 
sorely out of favor with the Chinese Empire. I still re¬ 
member my companion’s remark when he threw himself 
upon a bench in our little cabin; shrugging his bruised 
shoulder, he ejaculated, “ Ricalton, I commence to appre¬ 
ciate what stoning means.” And true it is, our greetings 
in many places had been quite barbarous; yet it should be 
remembered that I have made fuller mention of our ex¬ 
perience in the hostile villages, and it is but fair to state 
that we passed through several villages where the inhabit¬ 
ants were mild-mannered and kindly; upon the whole, 
though, I must say that, while I have been in most of the 
Oriental countries, I have never, in any place, barring, 
perhaps, some portions of the Mohammedan world, met 
with so much suspicion of and hostility to foreigners. 
The annals of China, however, show us that such was not 
always the case; that previous to the reign of the present 
dynasty, which extends over a period of two hundred and 
fifty years, the sentiment of the people was favorable to 
foreigners ; but the Manchu rulers, being jealous not only 


162 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


of foreign influence but of the Chinese themselves, in¬ 
augurated a period of exclusiveness toward everything 
which might hazard the permanency of their own reign. 

We will now turn away from our ordeal of stone and 
mud and omit any mention of our return voyage until we 
reach Kinkow, the place, you will remember, where I 
showed you our little house-boat and where we made our 
first stop after starting out on our trip; the place also 
where dwelt a mandarin, for whose entertainment my 
companion showed some forethought when laying in a 
supply of food at Hankow. Kinkow is an important city 
at the confluence of a small river, with the mighty Yang- 
tse-Kiang. This smaller river, on our arrival, was con¬ 
gested with all sorts of native boats, including a fleet of 
native river gun-boats commanded by a naval mandarin, 
or, perhaps I should say, a river admiral. This high 
functionary was he for whom the bottles of whisky had 
been considerately provided. My friend, on some pre¬ 
vious occasion, met this mandarin and knew something of 
his predilections for Western stimulants. After our ar¬ 
rival, we dispatched our “ boy ” to find him, on learning 
he had left his war-junk for some part of the city. He 
was soon found; he returned to his fleet and received us 
on board his flag-junk with great cordiality. He could 
not speak a word of English, but being very jovial and 
intelligent, the extent and success of our pantomimic com¬ 
munication was really wonderful; then, when panto¬ 
mime was inadequate, we fell back upon our boy’s 
“ pigeon ” English. His home and family were in the city. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 163 

The Western “ Sam-Shui ” was sampled, and his good 
fellowship was increased. It was necessary to visit his 
home to enjoy his hospitality. Accordingly we did so. 
We accompanied him for a considerable distance and for 
once passed through a native city unmolested. We were 
the guests of a mandarin, and our immunity from stones 
and jeers was quite delectable after our experiences at 
Matin. We entered the mandarin's home; we were es¬ 
corted to a seat of honor, an elevated dais, where a plate 
of sweetmeats was placed between us; this was followed 
by a service of tea offered in exquisite porcelain cups. 
Before we left the flag-ship he expressed a desire to have 
his picture taken; this was quite unusual in China; but 
he was intelligent beyond a dread of the camera. I was 
as anxious to possess his picture as he was to have it 
taken, but the apartments in his home were poorly lighted 
and I told him we must find an open space outside. Up 
to this time no female member of the family had been al¬ 
lowed to come into our presence; but when I suggested 
that his family should be stereographed with him he was 
evidently well pleased, and orders were at once sent to the 
female members to don their best. We sipped the mild, 
delicious tea and ate the very palatable delicacies for a few 
minutes longer, when the wife and a daughter of the pro¬ 
verbial sweet ten and six appeared, in beautiful attire and 
most careful toilette. We all started off through the nar¬ 
row streets, accompanied by servants carrying stand, 
stool, et cetera, for an outdoor group, and followed by a 
train of onlookers from the street that grew larger and 


164 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

larger as we proceeded. We at last reached an open 
space under some trees and they posed as you here see 
them. 

40 . A Genial Official of Interior China—Naval Man¬ 
darin (Admiral River Fleet), Wife and Daugh¬ 
ter, Kinkow. 

As usual we had great difficulty in keeping back the 
crowd, and a mandarin is not expected to interfere with 
the obtrusiveness of a street throng. Besides, you can 
easily perceive by his mellow blink that Western cognac 
has relegated his basilar instincts to peaceful realms, or, in 
other words, that he is a good-natured fellow under bliss¬ 
ful stimulation; these conditions, added to unusual in¬ 
telligence, made him a very agreeable personage for us 
after spending a week among the hostile and unscrupu¬ 
lous tribes out of which Boxers are organized. The wife 
appears a little demure or matronly modest. The daugh¬ 
ter is probably best described in the words of Childs, who 
stood at my back keeping off the crowd, and whispered: 
“ Isn’t she a dandy ? ” A fan is the vade mecum of every 
Chinaman under the sun and under the moon, too, for that 
matter, as they carry them at night as well as during the 
day. A Chinaman without a fan is as rare as one without 
a queue, or as anomalous as a Scotchman without an um¬ 
brella. They may safely be called the greatest fan makers 
and fan users in the world. It would probably be more 
correct to call them fan carriers rather than fan users, as 
they are more often carried and not used. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 165 

This official and his family are very richly attired; their 
garments are wholly of the richest silks and satins and 
elaborately wrought in the finest embroidery. The styles 
do not change from year to year, as ours do ; they can, 
therefore, provide themselves with the most costly dress 
without the necessity of a new supply with every change 
of fashion. Fashions remain essentially the same for cen¬ 
turies, and garments are handed down from one genera¬ 
tion to another, without being considered antiquated. The 
costumes of both sexes are equally graceful and conveni¬ 
ent. The European dress has been called a “ mysterious 
combination of the inconvenient and the unpicturesque.” 
And so it is—neither comfortable nor convenient—and we 
are greater slaves to fashion than the Chinese. In the 
Chinese dress there is not much difference in the style for 
the sexes. In the outer tunics worn by this family notice 
the capacious sleeves; they are very full and often ex¬ 
quisitely embroidered. In cold weather, instead of wear¬ 
ing mittens or gloves, the hands are drawn within the 
sleeves; and good breeding requires one to keep the hands 
in such a position as to properly display the sleeves. You 
may understand from this why I did not require this 
mandarin to place his hands in a more graceful position; 
it would have been impertinence and bad manners; that 
is his way and it is right, according to his standard of 
good form. The underskirt is one of the prettiest parts 
of the female attire; it extends a foot below the outer gar¬ 
ment and is beautifully embroidered. You cannot but ob¬ 
serve the entire absence of collars or anything about the 


r66 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


neck to impede freedom of movement and destroy com¬ 
fort. Probably the most important thing about the dress 
is that square piece of cloth on the front of the tunic, 
called by some writers a breastplate. It is elegantly 
wrought in gold thread and silk and bears the insignia of 
rank. Sumptuary laws and laws of rank and dress are 
very comprehensive and specific, to the smallest detail, 
in China. There are many ranks in both social and official 
life. Houses must be made in a certain way for a certain 
rank, even to the most trifling detail. It is the same in 
dress; what is to be worn in summer and what in winter 
is prescribed, from hat to stockings, with the utmost par¬ 
ticularity. It is scarcely possible for any one to under¬ 
stand how precise and exacting are these laws of rank. 
It is worth while to quote a few lines from Gray’s ex¬ 
cellent work on China in regard to these laws. 

“ The law distinctly states, with regard to the winter 
costume, that the hat to be worn shall be covered with 
dark satin and the inside lined with dark cloth. The 
brim is to be turned up. The apex must be adorned 
with a tassel of red silk so long and so thick as to cover 
the entire top. The top of a court hat for the winter sea¬ 
son must be covered with red floss silk so long as to 
extend slightly over the brim. The summer hat is to 
be made either of fine straw or of very thin strips of 
bamboo or rattan; the outside covered with very fine 
silk, with a tassel of red silk cord on the top. The bor¬ 
der must not turn up. The court hat for summer is to 
resemble the ordinary summer hat in all particulars ex- 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 167 

cept the following: The rim must be covered with gold 
lace and the inside lined with red gauze. The travelling 
hat for summer is to resemble the ordinary summer hat 
in form. The red tassel, however, must be of cow’s hair. 
In addition to the tassel, a button, indicating by its color 
the rank of the wearer, must be attached to the apex of 
each hat. For example, the hat worn by a gentleman 
or officers of the first rank, is distinguished by a button 
of a bright red color on its apex. A dark red button 
distinguishes the second rank; a dark blue button, the 
third rank; a light-blue button, the fourth rank; a crvstal 
button, the fifth rank; a white button, the sixth rank; 
a gold button, the seventh or eighth rank; and a silver 
button, the ninth rank. To the back of each hat is also 
attached a peacock’s feather, which, in the case of a per¬ 
son of high rank, has two eyes, while persons of inferior 
rank are restricted to a feather which has only one eye. 
On those so-called breastplates different emblems are 
used to designate the rank; birds are used for civil ranks, 
and animals for the military. The uniform of the im¬ 
perial soldiers has a cloth badge on the breast and on 
the back, giving the regimental designation. Official 
gentlemen of the highest rank have the angelic stork on 
the breastplate; those of the second rank, the pheasant; 
of the third rank, the peacock; of the fourth rank, the 
wild goose; of the fifth, the silver pheasant; of the sixth, 
the cormorant; of the seventh, a bird called ki chik; 
of the eighth, the quail; of the ninth, a kind of white bird. 


i68 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


The rank of military officers is designated by different 
animals on the breastplate.” 

This is sufficient to show you how exact are the laws 
laid down for rank distinctions in dress; the minute rules 
about the cap are made in all the garments. In building 
houses for persons of different ranks the same detailed 
rules must be observed, even to the number of nails in 
certain places. Now, can you tell by the badges on the 
mandarin and his wife to what military and social rank 
they belong? I take the bird on the wife’s badge to be 
a wild goose; if that be correct, she is of the fourth rank; 
but I cannot identify the animal on the breastplate of 
the mandarin; it is something like a lion and not alto¬ 
gether unlike a yellow dog; but I cannot make out with 
certainty. The daughter is probably too young to have 
yet taken a degree, but she surely bears the loveliest in¬ 
signia of all, the badge of modest maidenhood. 

We returned to the mandarin’s fleet in the river. He 
was on board to receive us. Our house-boat was 
brought alongside. A salute of four guns was fired in 
our honor, that being the highest number given as a 
mark of honor, and after saluting Chinese fashion, then 
European fashion, and repeating the formality again and 
again, bowing like fighting-cocks all the while, we sculled 
cut into the great yellow Yang-tse-Kiang, where we 
caught a lively breeze which soon carried us the last 
twenty miles down stream to Hankow. I paid off my 
crew, returned the house-boat to the owners and this 
terminated my trip of a hundred miles into the moun- 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 169 

tain region. On the following day I took passage on 
one of the regular steamers for Shanghai, stopping off 
for a night at Nankin, in order to visit the famous tombs 
of the Kings. 

41. Huge Stone Figures on the Avenue leading to the 
Tombs of the Kings, Nankin . 

Nankin is still a great city of two hundred thousand 
inhabitants, although it has suffered much both from the 
ravages of time and war. It lies three miles inland, on 
the south bank of the Yang-tse, about one hundred miles 
from Shanghai. The wall surrounding the ancient city 
measures about thirty-five miles, but the present wall is 
only about twenty, and in some places shows the effects 
of time. For many years during the Ming dynasty it 
was the capital of the empire; and here Hung Wu died 
in 1398 A.D. Hung Wu was the founder of the Ming 
dynasty. The founder of that famous order of Kings 
was buried in the royal tombs a short distance outside 
the city. The ruins of those tombs are all that is now 
left to attract travellers to the old capital. They are 
known as the “ Tombs of the Kings,” but are sometimes 
called the “ Ming Tombs,” the same as the royal tombs 
near Pekin. The ancient royal tombs, both at Pekin 
and Nankin, are approached by a dromos or avenue of 
stone figures. They include human figures, seemingly 
those of warriors and priests, figures of lions, horses, 
camels and elephants; they are ranged along either side 
of what has once been a well-paved way, sometimes in 


170 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

single pairs and sometimes in doubles. While the art 
displayed in the hewing out of these colossal figures is 
not of the highest order, the amount of labor required 
and the mechanical appliances necessary are truly won¬ 
derful. These figures of elephants are monolithic, twelve 
feet high and about seven feet in breadth. They are 
intended to represent the guardians of the royal dead. 
The site of the tomb itself is seemingly unknown. The 
backs of the elephants are covered with stones; whether 
placed there by the sport of boys or whether they possess 
some commemorative significance I could not learn. 
Gigantic figures of elephants similar to these at the 
“ Ming Tombs ” near Pekin, are known to have been 
transported for over a hundred miles by primitive meth¬ 
ods. I made views of other figures along this monu¬ 
mental highway to the grave of the great Hung Wu, 
but I have no space for them, and we shall return to the 
river, only stopping on our way to examine a bamboo 
plantation. 


42. Cultivated Bamboo—A Plantation at Nankin . 

I have already called your attention to rice as the most 
universal food product and the most useful cereal in 
the world. Now, I will ask you to consider, for a little 
while, another remarkable plant of the same family, but 
of a different species. The bamboo belongs to the grass 
family, and, because of its gigantic size, its great utility, 
its unsurpassed gracefulness and beauty, it has properly 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 171 

been called the “ King of the Grasses.” It may be ordi¬ 
nary and uninteresting to you, but it is an arboreal pet 
of mine, and you must pardon me if I dwell for a little 
upon it. The bamboo and I are old friends. I have 
learned to know something of its wonderful qualities 
and uses, and among all plants which have reached the 
dignity of a tree, both for usefulness and for beauty, the 
bamboo is peerless. Many years ago I was engaged by 
the Wizard of Menlo Park to encircle the globe and to 
ransack all tropical jungles in search of a superior fiber 
for the incandescent light. Equipped with a full set of 
implements for drawing out and carbonizing fibers, I 
spent a year among the bamboos of India, Ceylon, Bur- 
inah, Malay Peninsula, China and Japan. That was 
where and when my acquaintance with the “ King of 
the Grasses ” was formed and my pet-love begotten. I 
found about eighty different varieties in the island of 
Ceylon; about sixty scattered over Hindostan, between 
Cape Comorin and the Himalayan Range; something like 
eighty in Burmah and the Malayan Peninsula; nearly 
the same in China and Japan. You may see, therefore, 
I have had some opportunities to become familiar with 
the bamboo and can assure you familiarity, in this case, 
has not bred contempt. Those who have not seen the 
bamboo growing in its native climate can have no proper 
idea of its matchless grace and beauty. 

A clump of this magnificent grass will spread out un¬ 
til it becomes a grove. The average bamboo is about 
fifty feet in height and five inches in diameter, although 


T72 china through the stereoscope. 

the largest species, the giant bamboo (bambusa gigan- 
tia), found in Burmah and Ceylon, sometimes reaches a 
height of one hundred and fifty feet with a diameter of 
ten to fourteen inches. In Ceylon I have seen clumps 
of over a hundred swaying gracefully in the breeze and 
towering skyward to a great height. The bamboos be¬ 
fore us are not in clumps as they naturally grow. This 
is a plantation and not a native grove. The bamboo 
here is a small variety, not over two inches in diameter 
and twenty feet in height, but you see how straight and 
symmetrical the stalks are; how the whole stem is di¬ 
vided into joints or articulations, separated by an inter¬ 
node or knot; this is nature’s ingenious way of giving 
great strength to a light and slender stalk. The septum, 
or partition at the joint, extends across the stalk and is 
impervious to air and water, so that each joint can be 
used as a receptacle for many purposes. For measures, 
from a gill to a gallon or several gallons, one has only 
to cut a joint of the right size and length. After the 
bamboo is a few years old it blooms and dies like other 
grasses. The rapidity of its growth is almost incredible; 
sometimes three and four inches in a single day. It is 
said that its growth is complete in one year; in confirma¬ 
tion of this a tea-planter in Ceylon showed me a clump 
which we estimated at fully seventy-five feet in height, 
the shoots of which were planted only eighteen months 
previous. Lateral branches spring out from the joints; 
but not until the stalk has reached its full height. This 
is another wonderful provision of nature, since, growing 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 173 

in close masses, lateral branches could not develop while 
a young shoot is growing upward among old stalks. 
When the tree grows older a curious liquid is secreted in 
those hollow joints, which forms an agreeable beverage. 
If this liquid is allowed to remain in the tree, it becomes 
a concrete substance called tabascheer, which is highly 
valued for its medicinal properties. This substance, after 
a time, loses its liquid nature and is found to contain 
silicious earth, which resists the impression of all acids 
and with alkalies becomes a transparent glass. Many 
bamboos absorb from the soil a large percentage of 
silica; hence the strong flinty nature of its fiber. I have 
frequently seen sparks fly from my ax while chopping 
them down. The Buddhist priests prepare a medicine 
from tabascheer, which cures everything, like most other 
medicines. The bamboo shoot comes from the ground 
much like that of the asparagus—the sprouts as thick as 
the full-grown tree; when six or eight inches above the 
ground it is edible and has many culinary uses; it is 
boiled as a vegetable; it is salted and eaten with rice; it 
makes an excellent pickle;. it is also used for sweetmeats 
or preserves; a decoction made from the leaves is used 
for coughs. Space does not permit me to mention half 
of its medicinal properties. Being a grass, its leaves are 
an excellent fodder for cattle. It is recorded in Chinese 
history that its seeds have preserved the lives of thou¬ 
sands. There are millions of Oriental people whose 
houses are built altogether of it; vessels are fitted for 
sea, entirely of bamboo; ropes of all sizes are made from 


174 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

it; I have seen three-inch cables made of braided strands 
of bamboo. Masts of ships of five hundred tons are built 
up of many stalks bound together. Three or four sec¬ 
tions of large bamboo make a superior catamaran, the 
joints being water-tight. In the Himalayan Mountains 
I have seen water conducted for many miles from springs 
and lakes to the plains below through bamboos used as 
pipes, the small end of one connecting with the large end 
of another, the joints or septa being removed. The roots 
are carved into fantastic images; the leaves are used 
for thatch; rain-coats are also made from them and sold 
at twenty cents each; the wood, when cut into splints, 
is sewed into window curtains and door screens and 
plaited into awnings; the shavings are used for filling- 
pillows. Chairs, tables and mattresses, cooking utensils, 
umbrellas, fans, chop-sticks, bedsteads, agricultural im¬ 
plements, harness, fishing-tackle, baskets, traps of every 
sort, from the cricket trap to the tiger trap, are made of 
it. Two clumps of bamboo will furnish the entire mate¬ 
rial for a comfortable house in Southern China, at a cost 
of five dollars. The school-master makes his ferule of it; 
it is the universal instrument of punishment; it is the 
peace-maker in the family. I have heard an old Jersey 
woman threaten her recalcitrant progeny with a 
“ quince sucker ”; I have heard of a Crispin government 
by the “ slipper ” and of the “ birch ” persuasive; but in 
China the “ bamboo ” is the universal court of appeal; 
indeed, it may be considered co-ordinate, in general leg¬ 
islation, with the legislative and executive powers of the 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 175 

empire. It is impossible to enumerate more than a frac¬ 
tion of the many uses of this royal reed; and those in this 
small plantation give little idea of the stately beauty of 
the Giant Bamboo, rising one hundred and fifty feet, a 
veritable arboreal monarch, overtopping all other trees 
in the tropical world, and surpassing all others, both in 
majesty and utility. Our two dusky companions have 
listened patiently to my eulogy of their inanimate bene¬ 
factors and I will not detain them nor you longer. We 
shall hasten to board a steamer for Shanghai, and on the 
following morning we are once more in the busy streets 
of the European Settlement. 


176 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


THE BOXER UPRISING: JOURNEY TO THE 
SEAT OF WAR, 

Even before we set out on our itinerary at Hongkong, 
in January, a slight agitation in the political world was 
caused by the abdication of Emperor Kwangsu. Early 
in the following May an uprising in the northern pro¬ 
vinces of Shansi and Pichili began to create alarm. Se¬ 
cret societies were organized, or rather, orders which 
had had a long previous existence were revived. Chief 
among these were the I-Ho-Chuan, or, “ Fist of Right¬ 
eous Harmony,” and the Ta-Tao-Hui—“ Sword Society.” 
All members of these organizations became known as 
Boxers, which is a free interpretation of the literal— 
“ Fist of Righteous Harmony.” And now we must 
change our field of observation from peaceful aspects of 
Chinese life to that latest Chinese crisis widely known 
as the Boxer uprising. During the time we have been 
up the Yang-tse many stirring events have transpired; 
seventy native Christians have been massacred at 
Paoting-fu. On May 29, 1900, the very day on which 
we started from Hankow in the house-boat, the Boxers 
attacked the railway station near Pekin and cut off com¬ 
munication with Tien-tsin and the outside world. The 
Ministers at Pekin had asked for a dispatch of guards, 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 17? 

and four hundred and fifty had arrived on the 4th of 
June. Boxers were reported marching on Pekin. On 
the 12th of June an additional international force, two 
thousand strong, had started from Tien-tsin under Ad¬ 
miral Seymour. This force was driven back with three 
hundred and twelve killed or wounded. Tien-tsin was 
surrounded by large numbers. The different nations 
were hurriedly preparing to dispatch ships and troops 
to the scene of action. These were the exciting mes¬ 
sages on the lips of every one when we returned to 
Shanghai. Next, word came that the forts at Taku 
had been captured with a loss to the Chinese of four 
hundred, and of twenty-one to the fleet. I hurried to the 
post for mail and then to the Consulate, where I found 
awaiting me a dispatch directing me to proceed at once 
to Taku. I readily understood it was urgent to be at 
once at the front. I hastened to the different steamship 
offices, and, fortunately, found a boat which was to sail 
for Cheefoo on the following morning. Two and a 
half days was required to reach that port, which is only 
about twelve hours from Taku (see map of Eastern 
China, Map No. 2). 

In the meantime, permit me to offer some opinions on 
this last demonstration of agitators in China. Notwith¬ 
standing all that has been said and written about Boxers 
and the Boxer movement, it is very difficult to determine 
the cause and object of this uprising. It is generally 
admitted, as I have elsewhere stated, that the Chinese 
are a docile and peace-loving people, and yet, social agi- 


178 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

tations are not infrequent, and the great Taiping Re¬ 
bellion, in which over twenty million lives were sacri¬ 
ficed, occurred only forty years ago. An old proverb 
says: “Beware of the wrath of the patient man.” The 
most peace-loving sometimes become rebellious, and 
when such is the case desperation marks the conflict. 
It will scarcely be denied that want sows the seeds of 
revolution and rebellion, and when the struggle for exist¬ 
ence becomes general and prolonged, suffering human¬ 
ity will organize into protective unions, or into I-Ho- 
Chuan Societies. China’s great fertility and her vast ter¬ 
ritorial area are sometimes insufficient for her teeming 
millions, especially in the North, where whole provinces 
are often famine-stricken by reason of flood or drought 
or pestilence. An empty stomach does not make for 
peace, either in the home or in the State. The Taiping 
Rebellion, the most bloody, disastrous and long-contin¬ 
ued that has occurred in China in modern times, was 
inaugurated by a secret organization of insurrectionaries 
with the usual high-sounding name, Taipings, which sig¬ 
nifies “ grand peace ,” with the ostensible purpose of over¬ 
throwing the Manchu dynasty, whose corrupt and op¬ 
pressive administration of affairs had exhausted the pa¬ 
tience as well as the earnings of the people; in other 
words, it was hunger that brought about that bloody 
revolution. Want and peace cannot dwell together. A 
few years ago about ten millions are said to have died 
of starvation in the northern provinces bordering on the 
Hoang Ho, a river which has been called “ China’s Sor- 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 179 

row,” because of the loss of life caused by flood, famine 
and pestilence. This same poverty-stricken region has 
been the nursery of Boxers. While, then, I regard stress 
of environment as the primal cause of nearly all in¬ 
surrectionary uprisings, the immediate causes often ap¬ 
pear to be something quite different to the ignorant and 
unreasoning insurgent. The Boxer, in his struggle for 
existence, sees the cause in commercial encroachments; 
he sees the railway driving his wheelbarrow and carry- 
pole out of business; he sees the steamboat supplanting 
the house-boat and the sampan; he sees the modern car¬ 
riage and bicycle relegating the sedan chair; he sees all 
kinds of machinery interfering with his manual labor. 
His Confucian classics never taught him how it is possi¬ 
ble for a missionary to do a benevolent work. He looks 
upon him as the emissary and forerunner of foreign 
commercialism. Altruism is not in the Confucian code. 
I believe that any of us with a mind cast in the same 
mould and with the same training for generations, would 
be little, if any, different. An illiterate and superstitious 
populace will never discover first causes; struggle and 
stress of circumstances, then, sets the Boxer to looking 
around for the immediate cause of his ill conditions; he 
may turn against the ruling dynasty, or against the in¬ 
troduction of railroads, or against coercive land-grabs, 
or against the beneficent hand which has come from dis¬ 
tant lands to lift him into better conditions. Then there 
are Boxer leaders and Boxer followers—the more intelli¬ 
gent and the ignorant horde who will play the Boxer 


i8o 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


for plunder. But it is well to remind ourselves again 
that after all human nature is much the same the world 
over. When times are dull and distress prevails, a popu¬ 
lar howl goes up against the government administra¬ 
tion, or an army of malcontents marches on Washing¬ 
ton, or a wailing and lamentation is heard about unre¬ 
stricted immigration. Western countries are full of Box¬ 
ers; but efficient military forces keep them in check. 
It has always been so, and will probably always remain 
so. Throughout all nature there must always be a cer¬ 
tain amount of imperfection; the consequence is dis¬ 
tress; the attempted remedy is I-Ho-Chuan Societies, 
under many different names. I use the words “ must 
always be ” advisedly; some I know will not agree with 
this; but I mean, of course, until the millennial days when 
the rose shall be thornless and the bee shall be without 
sting and when “ the lamb and the lion shall lie down 
together.” Until then human nature will continue to 
be human nature, or, in other words, there shall con¬ 
tinue to be “ wars and rumors of wars,” and Boxers of 
many sorts. 

As I entered the harbor of Cheefoo (see map of East¬ 
ern China, Map No. 2) two grim men-of-war anchored 
in the offing emphasized the fact to me that I was near¬ 
ing the theater of impending war. Two forts, one on 
either side of the city, bristling with heavy ordnance, 
command the harbor and the town. The guns of the 
warships and those of the forts were trained one on the 
other. Big guns are always grim visaged, but when 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. l8l 

loaded and trained on an enemy there is mortal gravity 
in their sullen muzzles. These forts are on high bluffs, 
one a mile east and the other about the same distance 
west of the city; with glasses all the movements of the 
men at the forts could be seen. A part of the time the 
guns were trained on the European settlement and at 
other times on the warships in the roadstead. On go¬ 
ing ashore I found the Europeans in a state of nervous 
anxiety bordering on panic. Cheefoo is a large city, and 
while no overt acts of hostility had thus far occurred, 
large numbers of Boxers were reported to be in the vi¬ 
cinity, and the most trifling affair would be sufficient to 
turn the treacherous hordes of the city into a fiendish 
mob. The giant English cruiser “ Terrible ” lay at 
anchor a mile off shore, with her decks cleared for action 
and her monstrous black broadside grim with venge¬ 
ful guns trained on the forts. Several hundred marines 
were held in readiness to land at the shortest notice. 
This gave a slight feeling of security; yet it was well 
known that the forts could lay waste the city in a few 
hours. We will ascend a hill overlooking the harbor, the 
settlement, and the native city. This eminence is some¬ 
times called Consulate Hill, because several of the for¬ 
eign consulates are located on it. On this hill also is 
the signal-station on which we take our stand. 

43. Cheefoo, One of China’s Important Seaports, from 
Signal Tower, Looking East. 

We are looking slightly south of east toward the 


182 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


rocky, barren hills which encircle the bay at some dis¬ 
tance. The harbor is to the north, that is, to our right. 
Those hills extend on the left to the sea and terminate 
in a promontory on which is located one of the forts 
mentioned. Several Europeans have their homes at the 
foot of those hills; you can faintly distinguish one near 
the center of our field of vision a trifle to the right. The 
family from that home I found quartered at one of the 
hotels. Fearing an attack from the Boxers, they gath¬ 
ered a few more valuable articles and hastened to the 
security of the settlement, leaving their home in the care 
of native servants. The Foreign Concession includes all 
that flat land lying near the water, and the French Con¬ 
sulate lies midway between the little English church 
near the beach and the farthest limit of our vision. The 
first building on this side of the small church, with 
shrubbery in front, is a hotel; a second hotel stands next 
to the one just designated and on the opposite side of 
a narrow street leading out to the beach between them. 
The nearer building with four windows in a line toward 
us is the Club House, before which on the beach sev¬ 
eral modern row-boats are drawn out. And notice those 
sampans beyond; I will soon tell you how suddenly those 
were requisitioned. The English Consulate is below at 
our left; the American and German behind us. We are 
here looking southeast, and Taku is toward the north¬ 
west, and nearly half-way between us and Taku, at the 
time I was here, lay the U. S. battleship “ Oregon ” fast 
upon the rocks. You see the English flag on the yard 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 183 

of the signal-staff; this, with the one black ball, indicates 
the movement of an English ship, probably the arrival 
or departure of a warship. Those hotels were filled with 
missionaries and other refugees; bedding, boxes and 
bundles filled the courts of the hotels; some had come 
from stations in the interior, some from Tien-tsin, others 
from Pekin by the last train before the railway was de¬ 
stroyed. They were all fleeing to places of safety— 
some were awaiting a ship for Chemulpo in Corea, some 
were bound for Japan, others for Shanghai and ports 
southward, and many for their homes in Europe and 
America. There were all kinds and orders of men, wom¬ 
en and children; there were arrivals and departures of 
refugees daily and hourly; the Consuls were busy, each 
looking after his own people. The American Consul 
had chartered a ship and sent it to bring some seventy- 
five missionaries from a remote station. Let us go down 
and see them land. 

44. Missionary Refugees Fleeing from the Boxers. 

Landing at Cheefoo. 

The missionaries are here landing from sampans, 
carrying their children and portable belongings; they 
lined timidly from the boats to the hotels—a matron 
leading a child, a father carrying a babe, a band of coolies 
carrying baggage, a man with a tennis set, another 
mournfully pushing a disabled bicycle—all with the same 
dual expression on their countenances, that of long 
anxiety and final deliverance. I was surprised to see 


184 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

so many children among the missionaries, but my sur¬ 
prise was quite moderated when I learned that there is 
a premium on progeny in the mission fields; and that 
for each child born an annuity is added to the income 
of the lucky parents. I could not but wish that this be¬ 
nign principle were applied to other vocations. The ship 
chartered by the Consul lies out at anchor; some are land¬ 
ing here, others on the beach near the hotels we saw from 
our last position. You see the sun-hats worn by the mis¬ 
sionaries of both sexes. Even these northern points in 
China for two or three months in summer are intensely 
hot. 

To be prepared for an unexpected attack, many of the 
Europeans kept sampans in readiness by which they could, 
on a moment’s warning, make for the warships. Taku is 
two hundred miles distant, and all merchant ships stop at 
Cheefoo. Yet I found it next to impossible to obtain pas¬ 
sage to the former place. Warships proceeded only to the 
allied fleet, which lay ten miles off shore at T.aku. Corre¬ 
spondents from all parts were arriving and hounding con¬ 
suls and naval commanders for transportation to the 
front, or at least to some point nearer the scene of activi¬ 
ties. War conditions were everywhere manifest; it was 
every one for himself; no reliable information could be 
obtained about anything; all kinds of rumors were afloat. 
Several times a day I visited all the shipping offices and 
the consulates seeking for transportation. Europeans 
who had homes in the vicinity of Cheefoo moved into the 
settlement, bringing their more valuable portables. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 185 

Every one sought information, but could fine none; there 
was a perplexing mystery about all movements, and mys¬ 
tery always increases apprehension. After I had been in 
Cheefoo three days, this apprehensiveness reached a 
climax. Russian agents had engaged several hundred 
coolies to work on the Siberian Railway; they were placed 
on board a ship for transportation to Vladivostok when 
some misunderstanding about pay arose; then a suspicion 
was aroused among them that they were to become con¬ 
scripts for military service in the Russian army. They 
left the ship in rage and consternation, came ashore in 
sampans, when thousands of coolies and the rabble of the 
city gathered around them until the streets near the land¬ 
ing were blocked by a mob of many thousands. This was 
at once construed as a Boxer uprising; the people of the 
settlement were thrown into a frenzy of terror; women 
fled to the small boats on the beach and were soon well out 
toward the warships; a small band of volunteers which 
had been organized for protection and composed of clerks 
and shopkeepers instantly donned their cartridge belts, 
seized their guns and formed across the street, at the far¬ 
ther end of which was a solid mass of infuriated coolies 
held back by a cordon of native police. Missionaries with 
Winchesters and citizens with shot-guns joined the volun¬ 
teers. Every man’s face showed an expression of fight 
“ to the death.” Messengers had been sent to the Taotai 
(mayor) of the native city to call out the native troops. 
He soon arrived in his official chair, accompanied by his 
usual retinue of subordinate functionaries, followed by a 


i86 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


band of soldiers armed, not with their guns, but with bam¬ 
boo flagellators. After a conference between the Taotai 
and the European officials, the former harangued the mob, 
but it refused to disperse, whereupon he ordered the 
troops to charge with bamboos. Then followed the fun¬ 
niest onslaught I have ever seen. It was a spectacle that 
was suddenly changed from impending horror to the irre¬ 
sistibly ludicrous; a band of imperial soldiers, backed by 
a line of native police, rushed upon this impenetrable 
mass of bareheaded coolies, pelting heads and barebacks 
with relentless fury; the cracks of the bamboos resounded 
through the streets; they laid on heavy and fast; the front 
lines of the mob took the brunt, as the great mass was too 
solid to be quickly moved. Those in the forefront howled 
with pain. The Taotai sat in his chair and urged on the 
attack; the vigorously laid on strokes rang like pistol 
shots; after several minutes the dense black crowd began 
to fall asunder, when the soldiers could better distribute 
their blows; soon the wilderness of black heads was a pell- 
mell of ignominious flight, and what might have proved a 
bloody uprising was averted. The small plucky band of 
shopkeepers and missionaries returned to their several 
places of abode, the terrified women who were in sampans 
off shore were rowed back, and the consternation gradu¬ 
ally subsided; but it was a baptismal scene in the Boxer 
war not to be forgotten, and showed, moreover, the 
magical efficacy of the bamboo as an arbitrator. After 
five days a German merchant ship arrived, bound for 
Taku; I secured passage and on the following day 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 187 

reached the naval fleet lying ten miles off the mouth of the 
Pei-ho, in the bay of Pichili. 

It was a magnificent array of warships and capable of 
inflicting punishment upon the Boxers if they could have 
been placed within range. Our ship anchored with the 
fleet over night; on the following morning we entered the 
mouth of the river amidst the ships and forts whose deadly 
conflicts only a few days before had sent a thrill of horror 
over the civilized world. We landed on the south bank 
of the Pei-ho, proceeded a few hundred yards back from 
the river, and ascended a pilot tower, from which we ob¬ 
tained a panoramic view in the very center of the scene of 
action which resulted in the capture of the Taku forts. 

Turn with me now to Map No. 6. This map gives us a 
sketch of the Pei-ho River from the Pichili Bay to a point 
about six miles inland, including the sites of the forts at 
Taku and the town of Tongku. Find the number 45 in 
red, inclosed in a circle, and the two red lines which 
branch from this circle toward the north. We are to 
stand at the point from which these lines start, and shall 
look out over the territory the lines inclose. 

45. From Pilot’s Tower, Looking North across the 
Pei-ho River to Northwest Fort, Taku. 

From where we stand the mouth of the river and open 
bay is but a short distance to our right. On both sides of 
the river, at its mouth, are mud forts similar to the one we 
see on the opposite side of the river. The latter is known 
as the Northwest Fort. It is the one which was nearest 


i88 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


to the warships which are anchored in the river some dis¬ 
tance toward the left. It is the one first attacked and cap¬ 
tured by a mixed force from the combined fleet. Almost 
directly behind us are several other forts, little more than 
a half mile distant; these, with the North Fort and the 
Northwest Fort before us, at one o’clock on Sunday 
morning on June 17, 1900, opened fire with all their guns 
on the small warships which were lying in that narrow 
stream off to the left. The contest was hot, but of short 
duration, as by 7 o’clock in the morning two of the forts 
had been blown up and all the others carried by assault. 
The particulars of that battle are familiar to every one, but 
no written description can ever convey to you so vivid an 
idea of the appearance of the now famous mud forts at 
Taku, the river, and the surrounding country, as this op¬ 
portunity to view them for yourself. You see the level 
mud flats extending to the horizon; the view is the same 
in every direction, except toward the sea. Now you can 
tell exactly how those forts appear; you can even distin¬ 
guish the patches of clay detached by the impact of shell. 
You can almost see the guns on the wall; you can see the 
flag-poles and flags; indeed, that near pole is not only a 
flag-pole, it is also used for sending dispatches to the fleet 
by wireless telegraphy. These mud forts are not so crude 
and defenseless as many are led to suppose from the term 
mud. They consist of vast masses of well-put-up clay, 
which offers more effective resistance to shell than solid 
masonry; but how they are built, and how mounted with 
the most improved ordnance, you will see better when we 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 189 

take our next position on the top of the wall of the North¬ 
west Fort, at the left-hand corner, in line with that war¬ 
ship. From that position we shall look down the river 
toward its mouth and the North Fort. Let me call your 
attention briefly to the buildings near us, that you may 
know how the houses in Taku are built, and not only in 
Taku, but throughout the whole valley of the Pei-ho to 
Pekin—I mean of mud, though what you see here are 
well-made houses and occupied by Europeans. The two 
buildings at our feet are portions of the T.aku Hotel, 
which I occupied on three different occasions. The near 
building on the left is the dining-room of the hotel. These 
so-called mudhouses have walls and roof built up of bun¬ 
dles of reeds coated with the universal clay of these allu¬ 
vial plains. The countless villages and towns scattered 
over these vast northern tracts are constructed largely of 
mud or clay; they have a miserable appearance, but they 
are warm and inexpensive. A mudhouse to accommodate 
a small family does not cost half the sum required to build 
a well-to-do farmer’s pighouse in Western countries. 
This part of Taku is known as Pilot-T.own, because it is 
the home of many pilots whose services are in great de¬ 
mand on account of the difficulties in navigating the shal¬ 
low and tortuous river. Our position here is on the top 
of a pilot’s lookout; you may see another lookout beyond 
the line of buildings on our left. Some small dry-docks 
are located here; also repair shops that give employment 
to a few Europeans. Before leaving this pilot’s lookout, 
I must call your attention to a causeway which begins at 


190 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


the right-hand side of that Northwest Fort; it extends to 
the North Fort on the same side of the river and which 
we can see better from our next position. 

Now we are to descend, cross the river in a sampan 
and enter that Northwest Fort at the gateway at the 
southeast angle; we shall ascend the wall at the southwest 
angle and stand beside a modern gun which did its share 
of damage to the fleet of the allies and still remains intact. 

On the map of Taku our position is given by the red 
lines which branch toward the southeast from the encir¬ 
cled number 46. 

46 . Rooking down the Pei-lio River toward the North 
Fort and Bay, from Northwest Fort, Taku. 

How many things you may learn from this one pros¬ 
pect ! Again you can see the character of the surround¬ 
ing country; you can see the bay of Pichili and almost 
descry some of the nearer ships of the fleet ten miles away. 
In that stretch of water, near the mouth of the river, lies 
the great obstruction to ships entering the river; I mean a 
sand-bar lying only a mile or two out from the mouth of 
the river, and on which often may be seen several ships 
entrapped by low water and awaiting high tide. You can 
see shipping on the river, the width of the Pei-ho, and 
almost the muddy character of the water; you can see the 
North Fort with the flag of the victor flying over it; you 
can see the long causeway, leading from the fort on which 
we stand to the North Fort. Along that causeway the 
attacking allies advanced from this Northwest Fort. You 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 191 

can see how exposed they were; they could not advance 
over the level ground in open order, as it is covered with 
mud and water so that the daring sally was made in close 
order over that long distance. The causeway was a little 
Thermopylae. This sentinel told me that a handful of old 
women (Western) in yonder fort with the guns trained on 
the causeway could have held it against ten thousand men; 
but John Chinaman is no warrior. These have been 
called mud-forts. The term mud always conveys a sig¬ 
nificance of meanness which naturally leads one to con¬ 
sider them as crude heaps of dirt; now that we see them, 
we find they are well-built forts with bastions, ramparts, 
moat and armament which probably could be tagged 
“ made in Germany.” That long breech-loading rifle was 
not made in China; that steel shield for protecting the 
gunners is up to date. It will protect the gunner from 
rifle shot, but not from larger projectiles. The shield of 
the gun next to this, on our left, was penetrated by a 
three-inch shell, and the brains and blood of the gunner 
remained spattered on the breach of the gun. This guard 
you see to our right, neatly dressed in white with his Lee- 
Metford rifle at his side, is a British Marine. A few 
English and a few Italians are left to guard this fort, 
while the other forts are held by guards from other allies. 

I must remind you that Taku is not a stopping place 
for travellers; it is little more than a pilot station. All 
steamers with cargo and passengers for Tien-tsin and 
Pekin proceed five miles beyond Taku to Tongku. We 
shall now follow the narrow, winding Pei-ho to the latter 


192 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


place and from the deck of our steamer at the landing look 
out upon the ravages of war. On the Map No. 6 we find 
our position given by the red lines connected with the 
number 47. 

47, Burning of Tongku—U, S. S. “ Monocacy” at 
Landing with Hole through Bow made by Chi¬ 
nese Shell . 

This scene shows Tongku a few days after the capture 
of the forts at Taku. The relief expedition under Ad¬ 
miral Seymour had failed to reach Pekin, and after great 
loss and privation had returned to Tien-tsin. It was 
supposed by every one that all within the legations had 
been massacred. The war was on, and every nation was 
rushing forward troops with all the hurried bustle of des¬ 
peration. I reached this place on the Fourth of July; you 
see the flags out on the “ Monocacy.” Notwithstanding 
the gloomy news from every quarter, every foreign war¬ 
ship flung out the Stars and Stripes in honor of the Ameri¬ 
can nation’s birthday. Tfiere was no jubilant popping of 
firecrackers, which we are wont to hear on this festal day, 
but there was the crackling of destructive flames which 
were everywhere devouring the vacated homes of the ter¬ 
rified inhabitants. On the following day, news came that 
the relieving force which had been dispatched to Tien-tsin 
had been driven back and might have to retreat to the sea- 
coast. There were encampments of French soldiers, Rus¬ 
sian soldiers and Japanese soldiers. Army stores were 
heaped up in every space near the docks. The crippled 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

ships which had been in conflict at Taku were strung 
along the river in different stages of convalescence. 
Refugees were hourly arriving from Tien-tsin; some, find¬ 
ing passage in departing steamers, while others found 
temporary shelter on the “ Monocacy.” At low tide the 
opposite shore is lined with bloated human forms which 
have floated down from villages up the river where the 
Boxers have done their bloody work or where the Russian 
relief force slaughtered everything before it on its march 
to T.ien-tsin. 

This town was rapidly becoming the rendezvous of the 
armies of the world; it was universal chaos come again, 

“And there was mounting in hot haste; the steed, 

The mustering squadron, and the clattering car 
Went pouring forward with impetuous speed, 

And swiftly forming in the ranks of war.” 

Every one felt that the fleet-winged hours were clipping 
life threads at Pekin. The difficulty was now to reach 
Tien-tsin and, in the meantime, to find a lodging place at 
Tongku. All railway communication was cut off, and the 
military at Tien-tsin were driving civilians away, and no 
hotel or lodging place could be found in Tpngku. Dur¬ 
ing the first night I was permitted to sleep on board 
the boat on which I had arrived. On the second 
day I asked for permission to sleep on the bare deck of 
the “ Monocacy,” but my modest request was roughly re¬ 
fused by the Captain, who, with the officious conse¬ 
quence of a man commanding nothing better than an old- 


194 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

fashioned side-wheel tub that had been thirty years poking 
her prow into the mud banks along the Yang-tse, said he 
was reserving all space for missionaries. Accompanied 
by a young Swiss gentleman, I trudged several times the 
length of the slough-bound town to obtain only space in 
which to sleep for one night, hoping the following day to 
find some way of reaching Tien-tsin. Fortunately we fell 
in with a Russian officer, who, learning of our straits for a 
lodging place, in the blandest and most hospitable manner 
told us to follow him to the railway station and he would 
find us a room where he and his fellow officers were tem¬ 
porarily quartered. A Russian servant was turned out 
of a small hot room which was furnished with two small 
benches; on these we slept, each wrapping his coat about 
his head as a protection against myriads of flies—army 
flies, I suppose. I have often had occasion to entertain 
very high opinions of Russian gentility and politeness, 
while my opinions of the government are quite otherwise. 
The charming manner of a Russian gentleman is re¬ 
marked by every one; and if there is one fault more con¬ 
spicuous than another in our own country, I should name 
it national lack of courtesy. We made a slender morning 
repast from articles we bought from the steward of the 
German ship, and then I left my companion and set out to 
find transportation to Tien-tsin. 


China through the stereoscope. 


i 95 


TIEN-TSIN. 

After wandering about Tongku for some time I 
heard of a tug bound for Tien-tsin. I went on board, 
and a soldier in command said he was neither authorized 
to carry nor to refuse to carry any one. “ Tien-tsin is the 
best place I know of to leave, just now; but go if you 
like,” said the blunt commander of the little commissary 
craft. “ Yesterday it was nip and tuck all day, and the 
Allies may be driven down here to-day, but if you are 
fond of shells bursting in your hair, go.” “ Well, I’ve 
never experienced shells in that way,” I replied, “ but, as 
the Chinamen say, I will have a ‘ look see.’ ” While the 
distance by rail is only some twenty-eight miles, it is forty 
by the winding course of the Pei-ho. The voyage occu¬ 
pied a good part of the day. Many mud villages were 
passed on the way, from most of which the inhabitants 
had fled back into the country. We were constantly pass¬ 
ing dead bodies floating down, and, on either bank of the 
river, at every turn, hungry dogs from the deserted vil¬ 
lages could be seen tearing at the swollen corpses left on 
the banks by the ebb tide. It was forty miles of country 
laid waste, deserted homes, burned villages, along a river 
polluted and malodorous with human putrefaction. At 
last I was in Tien-tsin. It was on the 5th of July. Our 
national holiday I had celebrated under most unusual con- 


196 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

ditions at Tongku. The fifth presented a weird prosce¬ 
nium in the theater of war. The city had been reinvested; 
the previous day had witnessed a stubbornly contested 
attack at the railway station. Everywhere were to be 
seen dreadful scenes of desolation. Conflagration had 
already laid waste the entire French Concession and a 
good part of the English; housetops were covered with 
extemporized defenses; storehouses had been employed 
to provide defensive barricades; bales of wool, bags of 
peanuts, sacks of licorice-root and sacks of rice, in enor¬ 
mous quantities, had been utilized for breastworks. 
Smoke was curling up everywhere from smoldering ruins. 
Scarcely had I got my luggage ashore before shells came 
crashing over the settlement. Three of the four hotels 
had been destroyed; the one remaining was occupied by 
the military. I found an empty room in a vacated Chi¬ 
nese compound, where I made my bivouac until driven 
out. After putting my pre-empted space into habitable 
conditions, I set out to reconnoiter war environments. 

Just before we start on our tour of exploration, we 
must get a general idea of the plan of the city. Spread 
out the map of Tien-tsin, Map No. 7. Near the center of 
the map we see the rectangular outline of the Native City, 
the heavier black line showing the course of its encom¬ 
passing brick wall. Many native villages are grouped 
around this inner city. The Pei-ho River winds among 
the outlying villages in a general course from the north¬ 
west toward the southeast. The Japanese, French, Brit¬ 
ish and German Concessions lie to the southeast of the 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


197 


Native City on the river’s right bank; the proposed Rus¬ 
sian Concession is on the left bank. An earth or mud 
wall encircles the entire area covered by the old city, the 
villages and the Foreign Concessions. The course of the 
railroad which connects Taku and Pekin is seen to the 
east of the river. By much effort I had made my way up 
the Pei-ho to a point near that first bend toward the left, 
or west. One of the first places we shall visit together is 
the pontoon bridge made by the French opposite the 
French Concession. We are to stand as the red lines con¬ 
nected with the number 48 show, on the left bank of the 
river, and look toward a street and range of buildings on 
the opposite bank, a part of the French Concession. 

48. Horrors of War-Head Chinese floating in the 
Pei-ho, showing riddled Buildings along the 
French Bund , Tien-tsin. 

Many talk of the horrors of war who know little of 
their actualities, and for that reason such a scene as this, 
though it is repulsive, is also educative; for, to know 
truly, you must see, and even this repellent scene is but a 
slight hint of war’s horrors. For ten days before I came 
here, dead bodies, in incredible numbers, had been float¬ 
ing down the river, and, several times a day coolies were 
sent to this place with poles to set free the accumulation 
of bodies and allow them to float down stream. At this 
moment, you see, there are only four or five in view, but 
at other times there are large numbers, especially in the 
morning, after a night’s accumulation. At times I have 


198 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

seen heads and headless trunks in this flotsam of war. 
Many of these dead have been killed by the relief troop 
who first entered Tien-tsin; others, by the second advance 
of reinforcements, and many, previously, by the Boxers 
and were probably Christian converts. Doubtless a con¬ 
siderable number also are suicides, for the Chinese have 
a penchant for suicide at such times. 

This part of the city, lying between the railway station 
and the French Concession, was the center of the heaviest 
firing on several occasions, and every building is gutted 
by fire or riddled with shot. We are looking nearly 
south; the railway station is less than a quarter of a mile 
behind us and is surrounded by a suburban population. 
The shattered windows and pierced walls everywhere tell 
how the showers of shot swept everything at this point. 
You see the shell mementoes on this building at the right; 
there are other buildings along this Bund even more thor¬ 
oughly scarred than those. Many of the trees that line 
the side of the street have been shot through until they 
toppled over. The cross streets that terminate here, are 
barricaded for a mile or over along this Bund. The only 
water supply for troops and citizens is before you. Mili¬ 
tary orders were given that no water should be used un¬ 
less boiled; but the order was often disregarded. Soldiers 
frequently have little regard for sanitary orders or law, 
and have a happy way of turning privations and hard¬ 
ships into fun. After all, we have here only a hint of 
war’s destruction and sacrifice. These poor fellows will, 
in their turn, float down the river to feed the starving 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 199 

dogs of the river-side villages, and yet, they are some¬ 
body’s dear ones, and none will ever know how many 
thousands have been thus borne away uncoffined on the 
turbid waters of the Pei-ho. 

We will leave this grewsome scene, pass out upon the 
Bund, and turning to the left, follow it for a mile down¬ 
stream to a point in the river where small boats depart 
for Tongku. I wish I could show you all the scenes we 
pass in that mile along the Bund. At this time a walk 
along this street on the river is a perilous undertaking— 
“ sniping ” is constantly going on and there is scarcely 
a minute when one cannot hear the ominous hiss of pass¬ 
ing bullets. Once I stood talking with a soldier, only for 
a few moments, when he ejaculated : “ Come out of this! 
Didn’t you hear that bullet come between us? ” We were 
not more than three feet apart. We concluded our confab 
behind a wall. At length we arrive at the place where 
barges have been brought in to convey native Christian 
refugees to Tongku and other places of safety. In watch¬ 
ing them embark we shall stand on the west bank of the 
river and look east. See red lines connected with the 
number 49 on the map. 

49 . Native Christians Fleeing from the Boxers—Chi¬ 
nese Refugees being taken away from Tien-tsin. 

It is evident from the flight of these poor native Chris¬ 
tians that there is still no security for life here in Tien¬ 
tsin ; even after the arrival of ten thousand foreign troops, 
a feeling of anxiety and uncertainty prevails. All indica- 


200 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


tions are that additions of both Boxers and Imperial 
soldiers are daily being brought into the native city. We 
see before us only a handful of native Christians, many 
women and children among them, with coolies to assist 
in carrying a few bundles which contain all they have left 
of material possessions. There is a vast crowd on the 
shore to our right. The order has been given to go 
aboard, and these are the first of the line from an assem¬ 
blage that will pack that big iron barge; and thus they 
have been leaving since the river was cleared for the pas¬ 
sage of boats. What sad stories these forsaken, destitute 
refugees could tell! They go they know not where; they 
know not whether they will ever return; their homes are 
burned; their friends are scattered and many of them 
killed. You see British officers on board and British ma¬ 
rines here and there assisting with embarkation. These 
refugees are from the English missions. Other missions 
have their flocks of the helpless and homeless to look 
after. Hundreds of little children are here who cannot 
understand what it all means. Their mothers can only 
tell them that their own bad people have burned their 
homes and now seek to kill them, but the foreigner will 
save them; this is all they can be made to understand; 
they have curious little child-thoughts of their own about 
it all, but with undiminished faith in maternal guardian¬ 
ship, they cling to their mother’s hand, unconscious of 
their hapless fate. 

All refugees did not flee from Tien-tsin. It was not pos¬ 
sible for all to find means of flight. We will leave these 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


201 


fleeing refugees now and retrace our steps over half a mile 
along the river bank to the Church of the Apostolic Mis¬ 
sion, where there are assembled and fed between five and 
six hundred refugees. See number 50 in red on the map. 

50 . Chinese Christian Refugees gathered by Father 
Quilloux into the Apostolic Mission during the 
Bombardment of Tien-tsin. 

This church is situated on the boundary between the 
English and French Concessions, and escaped, in quite an 
extraordinary way, destruction from both fire and shell, 
although in the direct line of bombardment. It is a 
French Catholic Church and Mission, at the head of which 
is the Rev. C. M. Quilloux. Soon after my arrival in 
Tien-tsin I met this worthy father, who told me how large 
a flock he was sheltering and feeding in the basements and 
cellars of his church and other church buildings. I ex¬ 
pressed a desire to obtain a stereograph of his multitu¬ 
dinous wards during such a crisis. He said if I would 
come on the following day, he would do what he could 
to induce his terrified flock to leave the cellars and come 
out into the court for a few minutes, but I must be in 
readiness to operate quickly and not expose them too long 
to the bursting shells. They were all notified to be in 
readiness at a given hour, and when I had taken my posi¬ 
tion, Father Quilloux and another father led the way out 
into the open yard, followed by this cowering host—men, 
women and children—young and old. Scarcely had they 
assembled when a shell burst overhead with the crash of a 


202 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


near thunderbolt; they ducked and trembled and began to 
show an agony of impatience, when Father Quilloux 
called out from his position in front: “ Be quick! They 
are afraid! ” The work was done hastily, and it did not 
seem that the whole time occupied could exceed three 
minutes, and yet three shells exploded very near during 
that brief space. You may notice all conditions of people 
in this gathering; on the left, near the front, are three 
small children carried in arms; further back, on the left, 
I see two gray heads; on the right, in front, some fairly 
pretty girls. I asked Father Quilloux to place the women 
in front, I suppose, because they are more picturesque. 
He told me he had great difficulty in finding sufficient food 
for so many people. They subsisted almost entirely on a 
small allowance of rice. Up to that time only a few had 
died. He pointed out to me a fresh grave, near us on 
the left, where on the previous day he had buried one of 
them. These were days that tried the faith and courage 
of men and these faithful fathers did not forsake their 
flocks. 

What you have already seen must give you some inti¬ 
mation of the condition of Tien-tsin when I arrived. A 
hundred sights in Tien-tsin alone would give you a fuller 
conception, but even the greatest number could not tell 
you all. It is impossible to picture the apprehension of 
faces on the street—the roar of bursting shells and 
deadly smaller missiles that filled the air. Subterranean 
housekeepers cannot be “ sculptured by the sun ” nor can 
pale, fear-stricken faces peering out of cellar windows; 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 203 

nor the measured tread of soldiers at all hours of day and 
night; nor the thrilling bugle-calls in every direction. 
Just across the way, too, is a full hospital, and the still¬ 
ness about it is solemn and awe-inspiring. These things 
cannot be portrayed by any cunning of the camera. The 
number of troops is daily increasing. The transportation 
of commissary stores for all the different troops fills the 
streets with every form of nondescript conveyance—army 
wagons, carts, “ rikishas,” wheelbarrows, pole-coolies, 
confiscated carriages. A few European women were still 
left in the Concession. At one time, when the fire from 
the enemy was becoming stronger and the rout of the 
Allies was imminent, a weeping and disconsolate little 
English mother came running across the street to a near 
neighbor with this pitiful and tragic request: “ Now, Mr. 

-, won’t you promise to shoot my children if they 

get in ? ” “ No, I’ll be d-d if I will! ” replied the neigh¬ 

bor. This horrible request was prompted by maternal 
love; its fulfillment would have been humane, in com¬ 
parison with an assured butchery by the enemy; but, come 
what would, the manly neighbor could not, even in the 
name of humanity, promise to take the lives of sweet little 
children with whom he had been wont to play. 

From here I went south again into the British Conces¬ 
sion to the public water hydrant, where the soldiers of the 
Allies and the natives mingled. See the red lines con¬ 
nected with the number 51, a short distance to the left of 
our former position by the river (Stereograph 49). 




204 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


51. Strange Medley from many Nations at the Public 
Water Hydrant during Foreign Occupation of 
Tien-tsin. 

Water is forced from the Pei-ho to the settlement by 
a steam-pump on the bank of the river. The demand for 
water was so great that these hydrants were opened 
only twice a day; at such times all the nations were 
represented by water-carriers with all sorts of vessels, 
and here we see them at the hydrant waiting their turns. 
Not all the nations are represented here; but I can make 
out four; the Russians, being encamped on the other 
side of the river, are not to be seen; it also happens at 
this moment that no English soldiers are present, except 
the Indians, who are under the English. We see the 
turbaned Hindoos in goodly numbers. They have new¬ 
ly arrived and are quartered a short distance up that 
street where the British marines were previously quar¬ 
tered; hence the presence of Hindoos and the absence 
of the English. Those Indians are fine, large men, and 
their moral and military bearing is highly commendable; 
they are accustomed to carry water in skins, which are 
included in their camp outfit in their own country; these 
skins, filled with water, are carried on the backs of 
donkeys. Two American soldiers are in charge of the 
hydrant. To facilitate the supply, there is a hose on one 
side and a stop-cock on the other, one man to attend 
to each. There is a cart with a copper boiler in it, prob¬ 
ably found in some native house. The coolies have a 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 205 

tub, and there are two five-gallon kerosene oil-cans near 
the little smart Jap with his clean, white suit. 

This street, a little beyond the farthest point in sight, 
was crossed by a breastwork composed of bags of rice; 
just before us it was defended by the ancient cheval-de- 
frise. Those low buildings on the right were pierced by 
several shells. They are cooking-houses and sleeping- 
places for the servants of well-to-do English families 
living in adjoining houses facing on a street called Vic¬ 
toria Terrace; but the occupants had fled, leaving the 
houses in care of a gentleman, who gave me permission 
to occupy one of the them. Before this time I had 
taken shelter, as before stated, in a vacated room of a 
Chinese home, but after three nights my room was 
claimed by officers of the United States Marines, when I 
removed to one of those houses opposite us. Here I 
lodged for two nights, when I was again compelled to 
give up my extemporized dormitory on a sofa to other 
officers. The Ninth United States Infantry had arrived 
from the Philippines and every available house was com¬ 
mandeered. One of the shells which passed through 
that wall by the trees, on the right-hand side of this 
street, exploded in passing through the wall and the 
fragments entered the room I occupied and lodged in 
the back of a fine piano; but each night I took the pre¬ 
caution to haul the sofa on which I slept behind some 
interior wall. These houses were of brick, and one wall 
of brick was sufficient to explode a shell and a second 
would stop the fragments; but those failing to explode 


206 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


would pass through several brick walls. The bombard¬ 
ment was intermittent; sometimes for a half-day scarce¬ 
ly a shot would be fired; then it would be resumed 
again, possibly at midnight, or at some hour in the night. 
When awakened by the explosion of a shell further sleep 
was impossible. The few people left in the settlement 
were worn out by broken sleep and apprehension. Those 
not experienced in conditions of war, and especially of 
bombardment, cannot possibly imagine the startling ef¬ 
fect of bursting shells. During one afternoon, when 
firing was unusually severe, three shells struck within 
the same number of minutes; one tearing through the 
walls of the City Hall and two others bursting within 
the barracks of the United States Marines, but doing 
little damage. A little later, on the same afternoon, a 
shell entered the quarters of the British Marines, ad¬ 
jacent to the United States Marines, killing one and 
wounding two. 

Let us advance up this street about one hundred yards, 
swing to the right another hundred yards, and ascend 
to the roof of a building known as the German Club 
Rooms. There we shall obtain panoramic views looking 
in three directions. 

On the map we find the six red lines which mark the 
limits of our vision in these three views starting from 
the eastern side of the English Concession, one block 
from the river, and branching toward the west and north¬ 
west. Note now the second and fifth lines from the 
bottom, each having the number 52 at its end. We are 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 207 

to look first over the territory between those two lines. 

Before we take this position, however, we should get 
in mind the positions of the Chinese troops, the Allied 
forces and the general plan of operations. For several 
weeks the Boxer and Imperial troops, located mainly 
within the walled Native City, have been shelling most 
of the territory included within the Foreign Concessions. 
Again and again the Chinese had made sharp attacks 
upon the Allied troops, especially in their efforts to gain 
control of the railroad station. All their efforts met with 
repulse, but many lives were lost on both sides. Guns 
from the ships of the Allies had been placed at different 
points commanding the enemy in the Native City. Most 
of them were along the earth wall on the south side of 
the British Concession. For several days hundreds of 
shells had been hurled into the walled city and the smoke 
from burning buildings showed the effectiveness of their 
work. One particular point upon which the guns had 
been trained was the South Gate, in the center of the 
south wall of the Native City, as we find by the map. 
And now, on the day we are to look over this field, the 
Allies had arranged for a concerted attack. The Rus¬ 
sians and Austrians were to approach the Native City 
from the east, but the others were to advance from the 
south. Four days before, Monday, July 9, a force of 
Japanese, Russian and British soldiers had captured the 
West Arsenal, see on the map about a mile south of the 
Native City, near the earth wall. The way was thus 
open for a much nearer approach from the south. On 


ioS CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

the morning of the 13th the Allies had advanced to posi¬ 
tions from one-quarter to one-half a mile from the south¬ 
ern wall. The American Marines were on the extreme 
left near the southwest corner of the walled city; next, 
on the right, were the Welsh Fusiliers; then come the 
Japanese deployed on either side of the road to the South 
Gate, then the British Marines, and farthest to the right, 
near the river, the Eighth United States Infantry. 

Let us climb now to our lookout point on the German 
Club building, to look over the territory lying between 
the two red lines having the number 52 at their ends. 

52. Battlefield of Tien-tsin (during the Battle, July 13, 
1900) from German Club ( w .) to West Arsenal, 
Tien-tsin. 

Just a moment now to get our bearings. The build¬ 
ings near us belong to the British Concession. Farther 
away is the territory covered by the French and Japa¬ 
nese Concessions. That group of buildings with several 
smokestacks in the distance to the left belong to the 
West Arsenal (see map). In the distance, far to the 
right, we hardly catch a glimpse of the southwestern 
corner of the walled city. 

Perhaps we may at first see nothing extraordinary in 
this scene, and still, probably not in the history of the 
world has a landscape been photographed in which, at the 
time the view was made, events so momentous were being 
enacted; besides, beyond doubt no other view was taken 
showing a similar panorama during the action of the 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 209 

Allies before Tien-tsin on that historic day. I was, so 
far as I can learn, the only photographer on the ground 
to do work of this kind. Correspondents from all parts 
of the world tried to secure these views and offered to pay 
me any sum I would mention for them; but, of course, 
they were not mine to sell—they were the property 
of the publishers by whom I was employed. Even maps 
of the field were not in existence. These things I men¬ 
tion that we may appreciate the privilege we now have 
of looking upon the field of battle itself, and that, too, 
at the time when the battle waged in all its fury, when 
these very buildings on which we stand were vibrating 
with the deafening roar of more than a hundred can¬ 
non, when the thinned numbers of civilians left in the 
desolate settlement, were waiting in the utmost anx¬ 
iety to know how the tide of battle would turn, whether 
in victory or defeat, which meant safety or massacre. 
The cruel enemy was infinitely superior in numbers, and, 
if their valor should prove even half equal to their num¬ 
bers, relentless slaughter awaited all of us. A number 
of us stood where we now stand. You see the horizon 
yonder, hazy with the smoke of rifle fire and bursting 
shell. It was a thrilling and anxious day for us; it was 
a historic day for the world, and it is for these reasons 
that I ask you to note with more than usual care my 
explanation of what is before us here and of what we 
shall see from our next view-points. 

First, then, let me locate our position with reference 
to our last standpoint. You see those trees in an open 


210 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


square; the street in which we stood when looking at the 
public water hydrant, runs along the left side of the square 
between those trees and the small, low building, the gable 
end of which we see over this lattice-covered court 
near us. The small building is the one through which 
a shell passed into the rooms I occupied. I mentioned 
also a shell which entered the barracks of the English 
Marines, killing one and wounding two. I want you to 
see the hole in the tile roof made by that fatal shell; you 
may see it to the extreme right, at the edge of the roof 
of that second building, the one with three small, square 
towers. 

The building nearest us was formerly the English 
Club Rooms, now used as a hospital and already con¬ 
taining wounded men. Notice the rent made by a shell 
in the roof. To-morrow, when the wounded are brought 
in from the bloody battle now in progress, this and many 
other extemporized hospitals will be more than full. 

Yesterday the cannonading was heavy, especially on 
account of several lyddite twelve-pound naval guns 
brought from British ships—indeed, they had been 
brought direct from Ladysmith, in the Transvaal, and 
bore each a tablet with the significant device, “ From 
Ladysmith to Tien-tsin.” During the past night the 
measured tread of soldiers never ceased. We suspected 
some unusual movement was on foot; but in time of 
war civilians and common soldiers never know the im¬ 
port of military movements. At two o’clock in the morn¬ 
ing the far-fetched twelve-pounders from the antipodes 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


2 I I 


were in action. The night movement of troops was the 
gathering of the Allies for a general attack on the Native 
City of Tien-tsin. Americans, English, Japanese, Welsh, 
French and a few Austrians, numbering in all, over eight 
thousand, had moved out, under cover of darkness, to 
gain an advantageous position for an early general at¬ 
tack. That West Arsenal, the cluster of buildings and 
tall chimneys in the distance to the left, has, up to a few 
days ago, been in active operation, turning out all sorts 
of modern munitions of war. Soon after the invest¬ 
ment of the European settlement, this arsenal was bom¬ 
barded and the Chinese driven out; shortly they reoccu¬ 
pied it, and only a few days before the battle now in 
progress it was shelled again and burned. It is in the 
center of the line of advance of the Allies. It is called 
the West Arsenal in contradistinction to the East Ar¬ 
senal, lying at an equal distance on the opposite side of 
the Pei-ho, or directly behind us, as we stand here. The 
East Arsenal, which we shall see later, was captured 
and burned by the first relief force to Tien-tsin. Both 
these arsenals contained all the latest modern facilities 
for the manufacture of war material. The distance from 
where we stand to the West Arsenal is about two miles; 
from the arsenal to the Native City it is a little more than 
half that distance. As we have said, the objective point 
of the Allies is the South Gate of the Native City, which 
lies directly north of the arsenal and in line with it. A 
poor road extends from the arsenal across a muddy and 
grassy plain to the South Gate, sometimes called the 


212 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


Taku Gate. The brick wall surrounding the river city 
is twenty-five feet high and from ten to fifteen feet thick, 
with four principal gates. A mile or over from this wall 
is the circumvallation of clay, the earth or “ mud-wall,” 
some fifteen feet high, which serves as a first line of de¬ 
fense. At the left of the arsenal you can see a dark 
line extending toward our left; that is the famous “ mud- 
wall ” mentioned so frequently in connection with the 
exigencies of the Boxer war. The center of our present 
field of vision is the center of the advance of the Allies 
in the forenoon; later in the day the lines advanced 
slowly and with great difficulty toward the city. You 
can scarcely see a dark line extending from the arsenal 
toward the right, marking the line of the road to the 
city. But to the left and to the right of that road, we re¬ 
member the Allied forces deployed in the following order 
from left to right: American Marines, Welsh Fusiliers, 
Japanese, British Marines, Eighth United States In¬ 
fantry. At this distance of two miles the field of battle 
seems small, but remember that it embraces five or six 
square miles before us in this direction, and, when we 
turn in an opposite direction and look across the Pei-ho, 
we will see another field of an equal area covered by 
the Russian wing of the Allies. It is uncertain whether 
we can now distinguish troops or not; but at times dur¬ 
ing the battle we could distinguish the different soldiers 
without our field-glasses, and with them, very distinctly. 
You can dimly see off to the right the line of the city 
wall vanishing in the distant horizon; and the exact posi- 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 213 

tion of the American Ninth Infantry is indicated by those 
black objects, far to the right, in the hazy distance. In¬ 
deed, I have scarcely been able to convince myself that 
those dark objects are not the blue shirts of the brave 
boys of the Ninth ; that is the exact position they occu¬ 
pied at midday, when they found shelter for a time be¬ 
hind some mud-houses. It was there they encountered 
a deadly flank fire from a range of loop-holed walls not 
two hundred yards distant. It was near that point, also, 
that Colonel Liscom fell. I must remind you that native 
villages surround the city, outside the walls, and that 
these places were filled with Boxers well protected and 
firing from loop-holes. 

If we turn more to the left we shall obtain a better 
view of the mud-wall and the course of the night march 
of the Allies. On the map, the lowest of the six red 
lines which branch out from our standpoint near the 
river in the English Concession and the third line from 
the bottom, each with the number 53 at its end, mark 
the limits of our next field of vision. 

53. From German Club (w. s. w.) over Battlefield dur¬ 
ing the Battle, July 13, 1900 , shoving Mud-yvall 
and West Arsenal, Tien-tsin. 

Although we are on the same roof as before, we have 
so changed our position as to be able to see a number 
of citizens and one or two missionaries with their field- 
glasses watching the progress of the battle. Notice how 
some look in one direction and some in another; some 


214 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


are watching the bursting of the lyddite shells at the 
South Gate, which we hope to enter to-morrow morn¬ 
ing if the Allies are successful; some are looking at the 
burning city, toward which we shall look soon; others 
are watching the shells from the Chinese guns on the 
wall of the city, which are exploding over the Allies. 
You can see where one shell has just exploded to the 
right of the arsenal. Now we can follow the course of 
the mud-wall as it runs from the West Arsenal toward 
the settlement on our left. A little farther to our left 
than we can now see five or six guns from H. M. S. “ Ter¬ 
rible ” are mounted along this wall; these we shall also 
see to-morrow, if all goes well, when we move in that di¬ 
rection to enter the city. Also, beyond our vision limit 
to the left, near the same wall, two twelve-pound lyddite 
guns are placed; just across the street, not fifty yards 
away, is the City Hall, on the tower of which is the 
signal corps with a telephone communication with these 
guns, and we can hear the orders given to the gunners. 
Seemingly half-way between us and the West Arsenal 
you see a cluster of buildings sheltered by walls; near 
that place the Japanese have a field battery; and farther 
to the right the Sikhs have another. As we stand here 
all of these guns and many others are belching lurid 
flames, while the earth seems to tremble with their un¬ 
ceasing roar. The Grand Canal, coming from the 
southward, reaches the mud-wall off to the left of the 
arsenal; a small canal extends from the Grand Canal to 
the Pei-ho, running close behind the mud-wall. Many 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 215 

of the troops now engaged passed out during the night 
behind that wall; others passed over those low, grassy 
plains to the left until on a line with the arsenal, taking 
shelter behind the wall till the order was given for a gen¬ 
eral advance. The night movement was intended to 
conceal the intended attack; but spies had apprised the 
enemy and they were well prepared. 

Only one person in this group of spectators seems to 
be watching the Russian attack toward the east and 
northeast. The person in dark clothes near us, with his 
field-glass at his eyes, is looking toward the center of 
the Russian wing across the Pei-ho. 

For a few minutes we shall leave our position here 
and take another on the tower of the Taku Lighter Com¬ 
pany’s building, from which we shall look across the 
Pei-ho to the East Arsenal. On the map our new field 
of vision is given by the red lines connected with the 
number 54, which branch from the west bank of the 
river to the right-hand map margin. 

54. From British Concession (e.) to Fast Arsenal over 
Plain Occupied by Russians—During Battler 
July 13, iqoo, Tien-tsin. 

Now, we are facing due east. The narrow, muddy 
Pei-ho lies below us. We see something of the scat¬ 
tered villages across the river, where Boxers found de¬ 
fenses from which they fired upon the settlement before 
the arrival of the relief forces. We are here at the ex¬ 
treme southern end of the English Settlement and the 


216 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


native houses across the river are few, but to our left, 
up the river, they extend from the river-front well back 
into the plain. At present they are everywhere in ruins; 
fire has obliterated every trace of a habitable home; but 
even after fire had done its work the enemy found se¬ 
cure points for “ sniping ” from among the ruins. The 
tower on which we stand has been penetrated by several 
shells fired from two forts a mile farther up the river. 
In this direction we again see the mud-wall, marking a 
distance of nearly two miles from the Native City. Two 
more of the destructive lyddite guns were placed by 
the wall off to our left. Other batteries of artillery had 
been planted on the wall in attempting to silence the 
two forts farther up the river, which had been a con¬ 
stant menace to the settlement. Eastward, two miles 
from us, we see the East Arsenal, which was captured 
and burned by the relief expedition in June. This East 
Arsenal was the initial point of the Russians, as the West 
Arsenal was of the other Allies. Russian cavalry, in¬ 
fantry and artillery spread out and advanced over that 
plain toward the East Gate of the Native City and the 
forts on the river. The ground, as you see, is perfectly 
level; there is no cover for advancing troops, and the 
Russians have not yet learned the art of taking shelter 
by prostrating themselves on the ground; they were 
raked by rifle fire from the villages and by shell from 
the forts on the river. From dawn through the long, 
hot day, the Russian troops advanced slowly but tena¬ 
ciously, against overwhelming odds; by nightfall they 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 217 

had captured the forts which had wrought so much de¬ 
struction and caused so much anxiety; but they had 
not entered the Native City. 

We will return to our former lookout on the roof of the 
German Club Building to witness the battle now going on. 
From a slightly different position, we will look toward the 
Native City. 

Turn again on the map to the six lines which branch 
from one point near the river in the British Concession. 
Notice the uppermost line and the second one from it, each 
with the number 55 at its end on the map margin. As we 
are now to look over the territory between these two lines 
it is evident we shall be looking over the Native City. 

55. From German Club (n. w.) to Burning Native City, 
during Progress of the Battle, July 13, 1900, 
Tien-ts in. 

We can distinguish faintly the outline of the city wall, 
especially the towers, which at intervals rise quite above 
the level of the wall. It is evident that the shells of the 
Allies are taking effect; we can see smoke in two quarters. 

The fire to the right is in the interior of the city; that 
to the left is at the South Gate, the objective point of at¬ 
tack by the Allies on the west side of the river. Every gate 
has a massive superstructure of wood; that of the South 
Gate is burning fiercely; with our field-glasses we can see 
the red tongues of flame licking the sky. All the batteries 
have been directing their fire upon it. There the Allies 
must enter, if at all. The bravest men cannot scale a 


2l8 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


twenty-five-foot wall; they must enter at the gate. We 
can hear the order given. There is an occasional lull to 
allow the overheated guns to cool; then the quick muzzle 
flashes begin again, followed by the deafening roar and 
earthquake shocks. This has continued since dawn; 
there has been no lull in the steady roll of rifle fire; the 
fitful popping of the automatic guns sometimes joins in 
the hellish chorus. In such a long continued storm of 
deadly missiles of destruction one wonders if one soul can 
be left alive. It is now the hottest hour of the day and the 
hottest hour of the battle. The sky is cloudless; the sun 
is merciless; the thermometers register nearly a hundred 
in the shade; and there, before us over that torrid plain, 
are scattered eight thousand men, under a scorching sun, 
without shelter of any kind save the shelter they find in 
prostrating themselves in filthy pools and quagmires, and 
yet enduring throughout this long, hot day the well-di¬ 
rected and well-protected fire of some fifty thousand Box¬ 
ers and Imperial troops. The territory to our extreme 
left here was to our extreme right before (StereographNo. 
52). The English and the Ninth U. S. Infantry are fight¬ 
ing near each other to the right of the South Gate. The 
plucky little Japanese are beyond; they are easily dis¬ 
tinguished in white uniform. Some one in our eager 
group of spectators calls out: “ See the Japs advance on 
the double-quick! ” All glasses are up to see the bold 
little heroes rush forward for a hundred yards under a 
withering fire and then drop out of sight in the long grass 
and mud; next some one directs attention to a charge of 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 2ig 

Russian cavalry on the plain across the river—a long ad¬ 
vancing cloud of dust which meant that the cavalry was 
within it. We turn again toward the west and see rider¬ 
less horses galloping back to the arsenal; many of the 
Allies are now lost to sight among the outlying houses in 
the villages near the wall, and in the long reeds which 
cover the ground in places. Night is coming on, and the 
ponderous gates are still closed and intact, being within a 
square court and not exposed to shells. The Allies art 
within two hundred yards of the city walls, but not even 
the lyddite shells have breached the walls or gates. To 
charge these walls would mean destruction and slaughter; 
to retreat meant the same. It is defeat, but only those at 
the front know it; worse still, it is defeat without possi¬ 
bility of retreat. Surrender means indiscriminate slaugh¬ 
ter with such an enemy. Night is coming on and dark¬ 
ness will enable the Allies to withdraw; and what a wel¬ 
come night it is to those weary men who have borne the 
brunt of battle and the broiling sun from early morn till 
darkness—no food, no water, no shelter, and every hour of 
the long day under a raking fire. We on the roof wonder 
how men can live under such a fire; we talk of the dead 
and wounded now scattered over those fields where they 
will remain for the night, sweltering in bloody garments, 
on beds of mire. Darkness is to be the salvation of the 
Allies, for they retired under cover of night to the mud- 
wall, where mud-stained and blood-stained, weary and 
hungry, they caught snatches of sleep on their arms. 

It was learned during the night that the Chinese were 


220 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


as much disheartened as the Allies and anticipating, nat¬ 
urally, a renewal of assault in the morning, with reen¬ 
forcements, commenced to retreat. The Allies decided 
upon a vigorous and concerted attack in the morning, 
which was made and led by the intrepid Japanese. An 
unexpectedly feeble defense was met, many of the enemy 
having probably withdrawn during the night. The South 
Gate was breached by the Japanese. T.wo unsuccessful 
attempts were made to blow down the ponderous gates 
with dynamite, but each time the fuse failed to ignite. It 
was a crucial moment, when a minute lost might be the 
sacrifice of a hundred lives. In an army of heroes there 
is no scarcity of martyrs. A Japanese soldier rushed for¬ 
ward, with torch in hand, ignited the explosive and was 
himself blown to atoms; but the great gate was blown 
down. Led by these soldiers, the whole force streamed 
through, and the great horde of Boxers and Imperial sol¬ 
diers were making an ignominious exit from all parts of 
the city. When early morning brought the welcome tid¬ 
ings that the Allies were entering the Native City, we all 
felt that the midnight of apprehension was past; that our 
long-beleaguered conditions were at an end; that the last 
shell had shrieked over the settlement. 

Now let us hasten to the South Gate to witness “ after 
the battle ” scenes. We will go by the mud-wall and the 
West Arsenal, stopping a few times on the way. We halt 
first to examine a pair of naval guns, already men¬ 
tioned as having been brought from H. M. S. “ Ter¬ 
rible,” and to look again toward the burning city. On the 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


221 


lower portion of the map find the number 56 in red by the 
earth-wall along the British Concession, and the two red 
lines which branch toward the northwest. 

56. Destructive Guns from H, M. S. “Terrible” 
and Distant Burning City Fired by their Shells 
— Tien-tsin. 

These hot, smoking guns are not the first of the after- 
the-battle scenes; before reaching this point we have 
passed lines of wounded men, borne on stretchers; just 
behind us, in a canal in line with the wall on which we 
stand, are flat-boats filled with wounded Japanese. These 
boats are pushed slowly along with poles, and the spec¬ 
tacle they present is pitiful in the extreme; the bottoms of 
the boats are crowded with wounded men, some sitting, 
some lying, all in the hot sun; they are just brought from 
the muddy field where they have lain and moaned away a 
dreary night. The silence is funereal; they are not dead 
men; they are the wounded, many of them mortally; yet 
no word is spoken, even by the men poling the boats slow¬ 
ly along. The litter-bearers are as silent as pall-bearers; 
the tender consideration for the suffering wounded is as 
solemn as the reverence for the dead. Remembering the 
dreadful all-day battle, one can scarcely resist an impulse 
to lift one’s hat when passing the familiar uniform of our 
own boys, spattered with mud and blood-stained beyond 
recognition, with a crumpled hat sheltering a pallid face 
from the fierce sun. It is better that I cannot show you 
all the scenes of war. 


222 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


Now let us examine these instruments of destruction 
that have added red pigment to the war-picture behind 
those distant city walls. The gunners have retired to a 
slight shelter in the wall near where we stand; they are 
smeared with smoke and dust; they have slept by these 
guns. Yesterday, from daylight till darkness, these two 
grim machines were hot with unremittent firing. Now, 
the enemy’s guns are silent, and these two, with many oth¬ 
ers, look restfully and victoriously toward the destruction 
they have wrought. We see the smoke still rising from 
the South Gate directly before us and, to the right, from 
the burning city; columns of smoke have been thus rising 
from different parts of the city for several days; a great 
part of the city is laid waste, as we shall see when we enter 
it at that South Gate a little later. We are nearly a mile 
from our former lookout on the roof and not yet in line 
with the ground over which the Allies advanced. We are 
looking northwest toward the south wall of the city, and 
here we get an idea of the pools of water which had to be 
crossed, though on the line of the advance there are no 
sheltering banks or ditches, nor buildings like those we see 
before us. 

But we cannot linger here; we must hurry along the 
top of the wall to a point opposite the West Arsenal, in the 
rear of this mud-wall, where the exhausted and tempo¬ 
rarily repulsed Allies lay on their arms during the past 
night. Many wounded have been brought to that place. 
Many dead also. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


223 


57• Columbia’s Noble Soldier Boys —As Kind-hearted 
as Brave—American Giving Water to Wounded 
Japanese after the Battle of Tien-1sin. 

But we will not turn to see a row of two hundred dead 
lying a little behind where we are standing; we will only 
glance at a scene among the wounded and hurry on to the 
burning city. You here obtain a near view of the mud- 
wall so often mentioned. And nearest to us you see a 
fatally-wounded Japanese soldier and the tender-hearted 
American boy bestowing the only blessing in his power— 
some water to allay the feverish thirst of his mortal agony. 
The American soldiers have a kindly feeling toward the 
Japanese. The average American admires pluck; the lit¬ 
tle Japanese is an ideal embodiment of smviter in mo do, 
fortiter in re; our boys recognize this and make pets of 
the manly little fellows. I have frequently seen an Ameri¬ 
can and a Japanese walking arm in arm when neither could 
understand a word spoken by the other. The little chaps 
from “ The Land of the Rising Sun ” reciprocate. It has 
frequently been a great convenience to me, in passing a 
Japanese guard, that I had only to call out “ American,” 
when the cordial recognition, “ All right,” in quaint Eng¬ 
lish, was quickly given. They are so gentle and yet so 
brave, possessing in a marked degree those companion vir¬ 
tues. A boat-load of Japanese has just left this place for 
the hospitals in the settlement. You see the portions of 
tents from which they have been removed, but you can 
scarcely see the blood stains. Photography is merciful 
and does not portray the blood-smeared garments and the 


224 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


blood clots on the ground where the wounded have lain 
over night. TJhere is a dying soldier on the left and a 
wounded English or American soldier beyond him, under 
the cover. Two Japanese doctors are seen here dressing 
wounds. 

From here you catch a glimpse of the canal I have pre¬ 
viously mentioned, and along which many of the wounded 
were carried. You can also discern buildings of the set¬ 
tlement, two miles away, on the Pei-ho. We are looking 
east, as the red lines connected with the number 57 on the 
map show. 

A few rods back from where we stand, we will ascend 
the mud-wall and look toward the Native City and the 
South Gate (see map). 

58. From Mud-wall near West Arsenal (n.) to South 
Gate of Native City, when Allies are Filtering, 
July 14, 1900, Tien-tsin. 

The allied armies have passed this morning from where 
we stand across that plain to the wall of the city through 
which they have just gone, led by the Japanese. Several 
flags are already hoisted, which we can indistinctly dis¬ 
cern. To the extreme left, as I recall, the French flag; 
nearer the smoke, the American, over the South Gate; be¬ 
tween the two columns of smoke, the Japanese, the Eng¬ 
lish being hoisted in another part of the city. You can 
distinguish the outlines of the walls of the city here, much 
as we could from the roof of the German Club building, 
showing still a distance of over a mile. The road which 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 225 

extends from this point to the South Gate lies directly be¬ 
fore us; it swings around that pond to the left, then again 
to the right, passing around those farther native houses, 
where we see a number of persons; then again it deflects 
to the left, and continues directly to the South Gate at the 
left of the rising smoke, where the American flag flies tri¬ 
umphant over the smoldering ruins. The ruins of the 
West Arsenal which we have had occasion to mention so 
frequently, lie at our right, extending nearly up to those 
trees and facing that small native village on the left. 
These ponds occur frequently over the battlefield; some¬ 
times as drainage canals, sometimes as mere stagnant 
pools. The houses in these villages have all been de¬ 
stroyed by fire, probably by the shells fired at the arsenal 
which is in line with them. You may see a canal beyond 
those houses on the other side of the pool. That canal ex¬ 
tends nearly to the city, and the road follows its right 
bank. At a point half way to the city the Boxers had 
breastworks thrown across the road, and behind these 
were vast quantities of fired rifle shells. In that nearby 
village were great numbers of the dead. 

We see before us a band of coolies bearing a palanquin 
containing some important personage, probably a civil 
functionary who has been allowed to pass the guards and 
escape to the country; or it may be a distinguished 
prisoner in charge of that officer who follows. The 
coolies are carrying small, white flags for protection. At 
such a time we do not stop to make inquiries about trifles. 

We hurry on to reach the South Gate, and in passing 


226 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


through suburban villages we see many victims of the 
previous day’s fighting; some within their houses, some 
in the yards of their homes; one little boy, I could not but 
notice, who lay over the threshold of his home, his feet 
projecting into the street. When we reach the gate we 
find all is chaos and consternation; the flames within the 
walls of the quadrangular square at the gate are still 
burning fiercely. The terrified inhabitants are cowering 
in every nook. We ascend to the top of the wall, just 
east of the gate, and look west. The Japanese seem to be 
in charge, but the Stars and Stripes have been sent up, 
even amid flame and smoke, and there they still float. 
Our position is given on the map by the red lines con¬ 
nected with the number 59, which start a few rods east of 
the South Gate and branch west. 

59. Chinese who Paid War’s Penalty—At South Gate 
Immediately after Allies Entered the City- 
Battle of Tien-tsin. 

The South Gate is beneath that burned tower on which 
our flag floats. We entered there from our left, turned 
in this direction and ascended the wall at that inclined 
causeway at the right of the Japanese soldiers on the wall. 
We are now looking westward, along the top of the wall. 
The West Arsenal and the foreign settlements lie beyond 
this wall to our left. 

For days we have been looking to this spot before us; 
now we stand upon it when the victorious Allies are 
spreading out into every part of the city to our right. We 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 227 

mentioned the Boxers in ignominious flight. You notice 
two before us not in the condition of flight. Since we 
entered China, these are the first I have been able to show 
you of the I-Ho-Chuan Society. These poor fellows do 
not look much like overthrowing the reigning dynasty or 
even expelling the foreigners. We know they are Boxers 
because they do not wear the uniform of the Imperial 
soldiers. The number of dead along this wall was not 
great. You see the protection afforded by this loopholed 
defense rising on our left. The Boxers stood behind this 
and only occasional shots, passing through loopholes, 
could reach them. The greater number of dead are in 
the streets and houses near this gate, many of whom have 
been killed by common shells and the deadly gases of the 
lyddite shells. The wall, at the point where the soldiers 
are standing, extends to the left for about fifty feet, form¬ 
ing a quadrangle within which the great gates are lo¬ 
cated ; hence, the impossibility of reaching them with shell. 
While we are considering the wall, let me ask you to no¬ 
tice how it is constructed, as, at this place, the ruinous 
condition shows the formation, viz., a face wall, eight or 
ten feet in thickness on both sides, and the interspace filled 
with clay. The bricks used are large, about four by eight 
by twelve inches. You see a gathering of Japanese sol¬ 
diers near the burned tower, and a few Americans at the 
left. In the street below are Japanese horses laden with 
munitions of war. Seated by the wall we see two Japan¬ 
ese civilian onlookers; may be they are attaches of the 
army, or correspondents; beyond them, standing against 


228 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


the wall, is a large native gun, called a gingal or two- 
man gun. Many of these were brought into requisition 
by the Boxers, while the regular soldiers were supplied 
with the Austrian army guns, considered by many the 
most effective weapon on the field. 

We will pass along to that projecting point on the wall, 
at the right of the Japanese soldier, and face in this direc¬ 
tion, that we may see a continuation of the wall back of 
us and the aspect of the street running parallel with it 
down on our right. On the map see red lines, connected 
with the number 6c, which branch to the east from near 
the South Gate. 

60. Motley Crowds and Jumbled Huts of Old Tien-tsin 
—View Inside South Gate soon after the City 
was Occupied . 

Here we have a general view looking east along the old 
wall which swings to the left in the distance. The Ger¬ 
man Club building, from which we obtained our first pan¬ 
oramas of the battlefield, lies over a mile farther to the 
right than we can see. We have again, from this posi¬ 
tion, a view of the Japanese military supply force, and 
there, near us, is an officer's horse; we see bands of coolies, 
probably commandeered for service; we see a line of cap¬ 
tured “ rikishas ”; we may observe also this range of 
poorer houses made of mud; the better buildings are of 
brick, but all of one low story as usual. You may notice 
many of these mud-houses pinked with bullet holes, made 
by shots passing over the wall and, more than likely, by 
some volleys fired after the entrance at the gate, which now 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 229 

lies behind us. Farther on, a little to the left, we may see 
where a shell has penetrated a mud-roof; but still more 
interesting are buildings beyond, fronting on this same 
street where you see an open space, flanked by a brick 
wall; they are to the left of the wall and are a little higher 
than the surrounding structures. They constitute a native 
arsenal and were well filled with all sorts of war materials, 
including cannon, rifles of many kinds, swords, ammuni¬ 
tion, flags, soldiers’ clothing, etc. There is no doubt but 
that the ample supply of this military storehouse furnished 
many a souvenir to both civilian and soldier. After the 
capture of the city it was divided into districts, and the 
different districts were assigned to troops of different na¬ 
tions for control and government. This portion of the 
city was assigned to the Americans. This district extends 
from the South Gate nearly to the tower we see in the dis¬ 
tance, and to the left an equal distance. Fortunately for 
the Americans the district contained both an arsenal and 
a mint; more correctly the so-called mint was a public 
building for the safe-keeping of syce or silver bullion re¬ 
ceived from all parts of the Empire, in payment for salt, 
which is produced in great quantities from sea-water, by 
solar evaporation, and shipped to the different Provinces. 
In giving an account of this mint or salt-yamen, as we 
will call it, I must anticipate, in order that you may un¬ 
derstand the interest attached to the scene before us; that 
is, I must tell you something of what transpired several 
days after the capture of the city, that you may better un- 


230 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

derstand the scene presented here on the day following 
the battle. 

The location of the salt-yamen is indicated by those 
two tall poles resembling flag-poles off to our left; the 
buildings, at the time we are looking on the scene, are 
still smoldering, and few seemed to know that said build¬ 
ings contained great quantities of bullion. Soon after I 
was here I met an American soldier who had in his pos¬ 
session an old bag containing about as much silver as he 
could conveniently carry. He said, “ Look in this bag! ” 
I looked, and, sure enough, there was a back-load of 
bright bars; but I had some doubts about it being silver. 
I suspected I had become possessed of one of those old 
tantalizing dreams about finding money. I said to him, 
“ How much apiece for those bars? ” “ Two dollars and 
a half; there’s plenty more over there,” was his reply. It 
proved, however, to be silver of the first quality, worth 
thirty-five dollars per bar. I had not qualified as a broker 
and the opportunity was lost. During the following night, 
and before the military officers in command were fully 
aware of the great quantity of silver in the burning ruins, 
soldiers and others had carried off vast amounts. From 
this source syce became so plentiful in the settlement that 
the military authorities prohibited the banks from buying 
it, and made some attempts to confiscate what had been 
thus taken by individuals. The ruins of the salt-yamen 
proved a veritable silver mine. A guard was placed over 
it finally, and the silver was removed to the headquarters 
of the U. S. Marines; but what disposition was finally 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


231 


made of this rich capture I have never been able to learn. 
And, as to the amount, I cannot say authoritatively, but 
it was currently reported at one and a half millions of 
dollars. This, however, I know, that when it was brought 
into the marine headquarters I made a photograph of nine 
four-mule wagon loads of silver, all standing at one time 
before the marine barracks, and was told that these nine 
four-mule teams would have to make a second trip to the 
yamen for the balance. It w T as well known later that the 
Americans were not the only ones among the allied troops 
who found and carried away treasure. It was a great 
surprise to me. on returning to the United States, to learn 
that so little mention had been made of these captures of 
such enormous quantities of bullion; indeed, up to the 
present, I have never met any one who had even heard 
of it * 

If we turn about and follow the wall westward, only a 
few paces, past the tower on which we saw the American 
flag floating, we shall be within the section of the city oc¬ 
cupied by the French. From that point we shall look 
somewhat east of north over the center of the conquered 
city. Our position and field of vision is given on the map 
by the red lines which start from the south wall, a short 
distance west of the South Gate, and branch northeast. 
The number 61 is given at the starting point of these lines 
and at their ends on the map margin. 

* From the New York Tribune of March n, iqo2, we quote the following 
“According to a dispatch from Washington dated January 23, Secretary Hay that 
day handed to Minister Wu-Ting-Fang a draft on the United States Treasury for 
$376,600, the value of the silver bullion captured by American marines at Tien 
tsin.”— The Publishers. 



CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


232 


6 t. Looking North from South Gate over the Burning 
City, just after its Occupation hy the Allies, 
Tien-tsin. 

For several days after the city was taken, destructive 
fires broke out in different parts, and it was reported that 
the entire city was to be destroyed, and from the pre¬ 
cipitate flight of the terror stricken inhabitants, one could 
not but believe that such notice had been served upon 
them. At every gate, men, women and children were 
trampling and jostling in their efforts to escape to the 
country and to outlying villages. The dead remained for 
days on the streets and within the deserted homes. Here 
you can see homes going up in flame and smoke, and the 
homeless people sitting around awaiting permission from 
the French guards to leave the city. These poor people 
are probably in no way responsible for the Boxer uprising, 
yet they have lost home and all save these paltry bundles, 
and thousands and tens of thousands have shared this 
ruthless fate. From here you can only see at a distance 
the ravages of flame; you cannot see within those homes 
and shops the ravages of human hands as I saw them 
after leaving this spot and passing through streets near 
those all-devouring elements. Doors were smashed; shops 
were entered and plundered; men and women were flee¬ 
ing, carrying their precious heirlooms—their jewels, their 
furs, their silks, their embroidery, their money. These 
much-prized valuables were snatched from them, and they 
dared not protest; they could not protest; they could not 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 233 

even tell that they were not Boxers; but their lives were 
dearer than their most cherished jade-stones, and they 
were even thankful to escape with life and honor. One’s 
property depreciates wonderfully when his life is imper¬ 
iled. I saw native women surrender their dearest belong¬ 
ings almost in a spirit of gratitude that life was not de¬ 
manded. Looting from an enemy bent on taking your 
life as well as your property is justifiable by a natural quid 
pro quo equivalency, or by the law of reprisal, as well as 
bv the Old Testament code; but indiscriminate plunder of 
friend and foe is robbery, and robbery is robbery even 
in war. The looting by the Allies was not confined to the 
enemy, nor even to the Chinese, but extended to the Euro¬ 
pean settlement, where temporarily vacated homes of 
Europeans were entered and plundered. Shamefully 
looted China has had a lesson in the ethics of Christian 
armies she will not soon forget. Li Hung Chang said to 
a friend of mine that he had been reading up the Mosaic 
decalogue of the Christians, and suggested that the eighth 
commandment should be amended to read, “ Thou shalt 
not steal, but thou mayst loot.” I have here mentioned 
looting because that which I witnessed and which I shall 
not soon forget occurred near where you see this fire burn- 
ing. 

After an interval of three days we return to the South 
Gate and stand again on the wall over the gate and look 
directly north, toward the heart of the city. See red 
lines connected with the number 62 on the map. 


234 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


62. Old Tien-tsin, showing Terrible Destruction caused 
by Bombardment and Fire—Tien-tsin. 

There is a sadness about a deserted home; there is a 
greater sadness about a deserted city or village. Before 
us lies a great city, not only deserted, but sacked, looted, 
and in ashes, by Christian armies. Only a few days be¬ 
fore this stereograph was made this street and the sur¬ 
rounding houses were a holocaust of human life. A day 
later that long thoroughfare was a slow-moving line of 
homeless, weeping human beings—their homes in ashes, 
without food, friendless, and, in many cases, their kindred 
left charred in the ruins of their homes. This is not of 
the imagination; all that I mention I saw. There were 
mothers with babes; there "were aged men and women 
supported by younger members of the family; there were 
wounded borne on wheelbarrows, when it was their for¬ 
tune to have friends; otherwise, they were left to die. I 
saw one poor fellow, whose leg had been shattered by a 
bullet, painfully hitching himself along by inches, drag¬ 
ging the broken limb, while the bone protruded from the 
wound. At the same time, this street was strewn with 
corpses; those of persons asphyxiated by the fatal gases 
of the lyddite shells could easily be distinguished by the 
yellow discoloration of the skin. Lily-feet, which were 
so expensive at Shanghai, were here the appendages of 
mangled corpses that had no more consideration than the 
carcasses of dogs, which also lined the streets; but the 
camera cannot portray nor the pen describe those heart¬ 
rending scenes along this narrow street after the battle. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 235 

Now it is a pathetic scene of desolation. The homeless, 
starving multitudes have fled. You see two coolies with 
wheelbarrows; these have been allowed to pass the guards 
to gather up scraps of worthless iron, or something of no 
value from the ruins. You see also a woman who has 
been allowed to pass within the gates; we can only con¬ 
jecture her mission; it is, doubtless, an urgent one, may 
be, to search for valuable property or missing friends. 
Nothing less would tempt her to return at this time. Be¬ 
sides being a sad picture of a pillaged and deserted city, 
you can see the character of its architecture; its situation 
on a level plain; its low one-story brick buildings and 
narrow streets, this being one of the principal thorough¬ 
fares. You see the gate and tower beyond. Such gates 
and towers usually denote the intersection of important 
streets. 

This street is the boundary between the American and 
French sections of the city. The transverse street, at the 
tower, is the northern limit of these districts. 

We saw on the city wall two dead Boxers; you may 
wish to witness a closer view of live specimens, and I 
think I promised you such a privilege on our way to the 
north. We will therefore leave the Native City and return 
to the European settlement, where we shall be able to see 
about fifty. 

6 j. Some of China’s Trouble-makers—Boxer Prisoners 
Captured and Brought in by the 6th U . S. Cav¬ 
alry, Tien-tsin . 

Some time after the capture of the city of Tien-tsin it 
was learned that a large force of Boxers were advancing 


236 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

from the southwest, and had reached a place only ten miles 
away. Some apprehension was felt about a concerted 
attempt to recapture the Native City and attack the settle¬ 
ment. The guns which had been used against the Native 
City were mounted on the mud-wall and trained in the 
direction of the threatened advance. Breastworks were 
thrown up along the crest of the wall and every prepara¬ 
tion made to resist any force which might be brought 
against them. Even if the whole army which had fled 
from the city should return with reenforcements, the Al¬ 
lies intrenched behind the mud-wall were confident they 
could repel it and seemed quite anxious that an attack 
might be made. No Boxers appeared, however, and so, 
instead, an expedition was made in the direction of the 
rumored advance. The force sent out included the U. S. 
Sixth Cavalry and a company of Indian Lancers. They 
met a considerable number of the enemy, which they at¬ 
tacked and routed. The boys of the Sixth Cavalry re¬ 
turned in great elation of spirits. It was to them a bap¬ 
tism of Chinese fire and they seemed to enjoy it. They 
brought in many trophies, such as spears, knives and 
flags and about fifty prisoners. These are the prisoners 
before us. We see some of the boys of the Sixth Cavalry 
beyond them; those lads assisted me in securing this 
stereograph. There seemed to be some uncertainty as 
to whether all of these captives were Boxers. Boxers 
often doff their distinctive uniform for the ordinary 
coolie's or peasant’s garb when about to be captured; so 
that it is not always easy to know a metamorphosed 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 237 

Boxer from a common coolie. The boys said they knew 
one was a genuine Boxer because he carried a weapon; 
at the same time one of the cavalrymen grabbed the 
“ real thing ” by the pigtail and tugged him into the 
foreground and placed him near the camera as you see, 
saying at the same time: “ You can tell by his bloomin’ 
squint that he’s a bloody warrior.” The English and 
American soldiers were quite fraternal in China, hence 
the adoption of English slang. This is truly a dusky 
and unattractive brood. One would scarcely expect to 
find natives of Borneo or the Fiji Islands more barbarous 
in appearance; and it is well known that a great propor¬ 
tion of the Boxer organization is of this sort; indeed, we 
may even say by far the larger half of the population of 
the empire is of this low, poor, coolie class. How dark- 
skinned, how ill-clad, how lacking in intelligence, how 
dull, morose, miserable and vicious they appear! This 
view was made during a very hot day in a torrid sun; 
and still they sit here with their heads shaven and uncov¬ 
ered without a sign of discomfort. None of the group 
endeavors to escape the camera; they are surrounded by 
guards; they are helpless and humble. They are quite 
devoid of the insolent boldness that characterizes the 
mountain tribes in the Province of Hunan; they are 
prisoners and do not yet know their fate. To-morrow 
they may be shot; but whether it is bambooing, shoot¬ 
ing or beheading, one fellow decides he will take a 
smoke. 

We are but a short distance from the Pei-ho (see 


238 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

number 63 in red in the German Concession on the map). 
Leaving the Boxers with the guards, let us stroll to the 
river, where we may witness a novelty in transportation. 
Find the red lines and the number 64 in red a few blocks 
further north on the map. 

64. Wheelbarrow Transportation, China*s Best and 
Cheapest Freighters—At the Boat-landing, Tien¬ 
tsin. 

The wheelbarrow is both the cart and the carriage of 
northern China; it is one of the few things that has at¬ 
tained a higher development in China than in any other 
part of the world. It has reached the dignity of a com¬ 
mercial institution. You can see in those before us the 
unusual construction, the great size of the wheel which 
is placed in the center of a heavy frame which projects in 
all directions; observe also how far apart the handle¬ 
bars are placed in order to giver power to balance. A 
rope or strap extends from the handle-bars over the 
man’s shoulders; this gives power of equilibrium and 
distribution of weight. The upper part of the wheel is 
protected by a frame. A system of ropes is used to bind 
on bulky cargoes. Some are adapted to carrying pas¬ 
sengers, and some chiefly for heavy loads of cargo of any 
kind. I have seen five passengers in one barrow. Pas¬ 
sengers are often carried between Shanghai and Pekin, a 
distance of six hundred miles. One man will sometimes 
carry on his barrow a half ton of cargo. A strong wheel¬ 
barrow coolie will carry two passengers and make twenty 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


239 


miles a day on a daily allowance of twenty cents; that 
would be ten cents for each passenger, or one-half cent 
per mile about one-fourth the lowest rates on any of our 
railways. Why should a Chinaman favor the introduc¬ 
tion of railways? 

At Shanghai we referred to the wheelbarrow as a pas¬ 
senger vehicle, while here you may see it used in transport¬ 
ing all kinds of commodities. They have been brought 
into requisition in great numbers by the different nations 
to transport army stores from the boat-landing at the river 
front to the different places of encampment or to storage 
places for supplies. This small army of wheelbarrows is 
in control of the Japanese, as you may see by the flag 
borne by one of them; a very small flag is also attached 
to the front of each barrow—a flag with a white field and 
a black disk in the center. You may have some idea of 
the general use into which they are brought when you 
remember that all the armies are supplied in the same 
way. These wheelbarrow men are often careless about 
keeping the bearings of the wheels lubricated, and when 
such is the case the creaking noise under a heavy burden 
is excruciating. Try to imagine this entire force tearing 
on with heavy loads and dry axles, and you may realize 
the susceptibilities of the human tympanum in relation 
to harmony and discord. But the most interesting thing 
about these quaint motors is, that in case you have a 
quantity of merchandise to be moved from one point to 
another you can have it done by these coolies with their 
barrows for much less than it would cost you by modern 


240 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


carts, trucks, wagons or railways, and done with greater 
care and less destruction to the goods transported. 

Notice the building on our left with the American flag 
flying over it; it is the headquarters of the Quarter¬ 
master’s Department, and I call your attention to it be¬ 
cause when I am ready to start for Pekin I must come to 
this office and present a letter to General Chaffee from 
the State Department at Washington in order to get 
from him a permit for transportation on one of the com¬ 
mandeered small cargo junks which sail from the landing 
before that office. You can see some of these boats now 
at the landing beyond that great mound of army supplies 
over which the flag is flying. That is the point from 
which we are to sail when we leave Tien-tsin. We are 
here looking up the Pei-ho. You will notice two of our 
own soldier boys whose free and easy manner and com¬ 
fortable negligee has occasionally elicited unfavorable 
criticism from foreigners, this rough and ready undress 
being regarded as slovenly and unmilitary, especially in 
parade, but we believe in sacrificing appearance for the 
best fighting conditions. These two are typical American 
soldiers off duty. They scrambled to balance them¬ 
selves on this perch; they swore at the coolie to “ hold 
still ”; they wanted to go into pictorial history, and here 
they are—statuesque as you please, with the drollest of 
wheelbarrows for a pedestal. Before coming here we 
saw the Boxer prisoners; here we see, beside the wheel¬ 
barrows, the common coolie; they appear in no way dif¬ 
ferent from the Boxers, showing how largely the I-Ho- 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 241 

Chuan is made up of the lower element of the population. 

From where we are standing we stroll directly up the 
river for a mile, cross to the opposite shore and enter a 
mile further on a native village in which many of the 
native Boxers were sheltered during the first attacks on 
the settlement. On the map see number 65 in red near 
the second eastward bend of the river. 

65. Family of the Lower Class “ Chowing ” in Their 
Home, Paitially Destroyed during the Siege, 
Tien-tsin. 

Here, as usual, we find the house partially destroyed; 
but as the buildings are chiefly of clay and unburned 
brick, many of them furnished little fuel for the flames 
and so escaped destruction. The inhabitants are now re¬ 
turning to reoccupy their old haunts when found habit¬ 
able, and we find this family of the lower class “ chow¬ 
ing ” after their wonted fashion. Whether afraid of the 
camera or not, they are now under the Allies and neces¬ 
sity has no choice; they meekly do our bidding. The 
“ old woman ” has a place at the end of the table. They 
are eating a regular meal; it is nondescript in the na¬ 
ture of its victuals. I cannot describe dishes that are al¬ 
together mystery; there is rice, of course, and some¬ 
thing which I imagine has once been fish; there are 
vegetables in small pieces in liquid. There are no knives 
nor forks on the table, nor chairs around it, but of course 
we see the inevitable chop-sticks or “ nimble lads,” as 
their Chinese name implies. The name is appropriate, 


242 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

for the dexterity with which the Chinese handle these lit¬ 
tle straight sticks is marvelous; they will pick up a single 
grain of rice between the ends of these sticks as readily 
as we could do it with a spoon. 

Do not forget that we are here looking at a family 
of the lower class. Among the upper class a family at a 
meal would present a different appearance; there 
would be fine dress, fine furniture and fine food after its 
order. Judged by some writers, the Chinese have been 
placed next to the French as cooks, and particularly as 
culinary economists. Every Westerner is impressed by 
the simplicity of their food. Probably this denotes wis¬ 
dom more than it does scarcity, for in Western lands also 
we often find the healthiest and most robust among the 
plain livers. In these days when the enlightened nations, 
so-called, are studying the best means of feeding the 
greatest number at the smallest cost, it is interesting to 
learn an undoubted fact that it is possible in China in 
ordinary times to furnish an abundance of food of whole¬ 
some quality at a cost of two cents a day for each adult 
person. Nor is this the minimum, for it is claimed by 
eminent authorities that during famines great numbers 
have been maintained on one and one-half cents a day. 
Before us is a family of six, and I doubt whether the daily 
expense of that family exceeds ten cents. 

Before we leave them, have you noticed that they sit 
in the hottest midsummer sun, and, like all others among 
the lowly whom we have been studying, they are without 
head cover? Have you noticed the mottled scalp of the 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


243 


boy who sits with his back toward us? That appearance 
is very common among the poor; but whether from scalp 
disease or the encampments of insect colonies, I can only 
surmise. Some girls peered from small apertures in 
these lowly homes, and I tried to persuade them to join 
this “ chowing ” band; they tittered and withdrew, and I 
did not persist, as they would not have added much to the 
beauty of the six already before us. It is scarcely neces¬ 
sary to suggest that there is probably no boastful rivalry 
between their wardrobe and their cupboard; but while we 
look upon their poverty and lowly home, we must not for¬ 
get Gray’s beautiful lines: 

“Let not ambition mark their useful toil, 

Their homely joys and destiny obscure.” 

In the course of our journeyings I have alluded before 
to the great amount of arable land occupied by graves. 
Assuming the population of China to be four hundred 
millions, and remembering that an equal number re¬ 
quires burial every forty or fifty years, or that the amount 
of productive land must be reduced every fifty years by 
the area of four hundred million graves, we can possibly 
understand how graves are interfering with agriculture 
and the food supply. Let us walk to the outskirts of the 
Native City just beyond the battle-field, where we can see 
how thickly the mounds of the dead are scattered over 
the plain. On the map the red lines branching toward 
the northeast from the number 66, a half-mile to the 
west of the Native City, shows our position. 


244 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


66 . Reverent but Prejudicial Ancestor Worship—One 
of China’s Immense Cemeteries, which seri¬ 
ously Lessen Her Productive Land Area. 

This is not exactly a potter’s field; it is the burial place 
of the common people. We do not see here the graves of 
the better class, for they often have private graveyards 
within their own domain. These are humble graves, sim¬ 
ple mounds covering heavy wooden coffins. They are 
sacredly preserved; they have been located by geomancy 
and that has first right, and land tenure second. Sup¬ 
pose we allow a square rod for two graves and that only 
four hundred million burials occur every fifty years; that 
would diminish the production area one and one-half mil¬ 
lion acres every half century. Can we wonder then that 
there is so much complaint because inviolable sepulture 
encroaches so heavily upon productive lands. Wherever 
possible, barren slopes and unproductive places are set 
apart for cemeteries, but this is frequently not practicable. 
Mortuary buildings are erected in which the wealthy place 
their dead, at least, temporarily. Near Tien-tsin I saw 
buildings inclosed by brick walls in which many coffins 
stood above ground quite exposed. These coffins had 
been burst open and rifled by some of the foreign soldiers. 
The bodies were tumbled out to be stripped of their jewels 
and trinkets; they were robed in their best apparel and 
well preserved, as though partially mummified. It is 
known that they are buried with some of their precious 
belongings, and this tempted the greed of some of the un¬ 
principled soldiery. The coffins are made of plank three 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 245 

and four inches thick, carefully sealed. In the bottom is 
placed a quantity of quicklime; the body is swathed in a 
great amount of cotton, and only a slight odor escaped 
from these newly-opened coffins. The dead are kept at 
least forty-nine days before interment; this is to give the 
geomancers ample time to locate a lucky burial site. Cof¬ 
fins are often secured irrespective of any imminent pros¬ 
pects of death; indeed, they are always regarded as a very 
handsome and appropriate birthday gift. Funeral cus¬ 
toms in China are so numerous and strange that chapters 
might be devoted to an account of them; one consists in 
scattering paper money (small tin-foil imitations of syce) 
along the road as the funeral procession advances, in 
order to appease the cupidity of straggling ghosts that 
may haunt the way. We see no tablets nor monuments to 
mark these last resting-places of the dead. The ap¬ 
proaches to the tombs of nobles, as we observed at Nan¬ 
kin, are often marked by rows of stone figures. 

You see in the distance what appears to be a small 
pagoda, and beyond a small tower; they both might be 
called towers of silence; but they are really baby-towers; 
that is, they are towers in which babes are buried, or 
rather pitched. All babes under one year of age at death 
are wrapped in cloths, bound around with strings, and 
thrown into these towers. It may even be suspected that 
these baby-towers may be the bourne of many girl-babes 
before death; you know girl infanticide is not uncommon, 
and here is facile modus. In illustration of how prevalent 
is the destruction of girl-babes, one writer tells about see- 


246 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

ing the following notice posted at the edge of a pond: 
“ Girls may not be drowned here.” 

There is a shepherd here among the graves with his lit¬ 
tle flock; very little mutton is eaten in China, so it is quite 
probable that these mutton-subjects are kept for their 
wool. 

Only fifty yards to the left of where we stand I wit¬ 
nessed a spectacle I will not soon forget, a scene too 
shocking to be shown to the world indiscriminately. It 
was the shooting of two Chinamen by the French and 
the beheading of two others by the Japanese; the former 
were convicted of stealing, the latter of being Boxers. 
The former were bound to posts and shot; the latter were 
made to stand among these graves while a shallow pit was 
dug in their presence, beside one of these mounds; this 
shallow muddy hole was to be the one grave for the two 
convicts. T,hey were made to kneel on the mound looking 
down into the grave prepared for them, so that when the 
fatal blow was struck they would fall therein. Only a 
few of us had learned the hour of execution and were 
present, among us an American doctor who, when this 
grave was being dug and the two poor fellows stood near 
by, held the hand of one, feeling his pulse. Some one 
queries : “ Normal, doctor ? ” “ One hundred and twenty- 
six,” replied the physician; and yet the doomed man 
showed no outward mental disturbance. Another, speak¬ 
ing his language, asked him if he was a Boxer, to which 
he replied meekly and with mysterious resignation, “ I am 
no Boxer; all the village people hereabouts know me.” I 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCORE. 247 

was told afterward that this sympathetic medical man, 
who was not unfamiliar with blood, was so disturbed by 
this heartless butchery that he was disqualified for duty 
for several days. I will not describe this spectacle in de¬ 
tail for the same reason that I do not present a view of it. 
It is too grewsome for presentation in a popular series; 
yet those who would fully realize the cruelties and bar¬ 
barities of war should know and see; the view may be had 
of the publishers. 

The most famous man in China, the ablest statesman in 
Asia, the second richest man in the world and one of the 
most widely known characters in history, reached Tien¬ 
tsin later during my sojourn in China. I refer to Li 
Hung Chang. His journey from Canton to the north was 
heralded over the world. The great intermediary be¬ 
tween the throne of China and the foreigner, so often de¬ 
graded and then reinstated, passed from south to north 
like a sidereal luminary that had wandered from its path, 
but was again to be restored to its true place in the heav¬ 
ens, or as peacemaker to the Imperial Court. 

67. 1 yi Hung Chang, China*s Greatest Viceroy and 
Diplomat—Photographed in His Yamen, Tien¬ 
tsin, September 27, 1900. 

This meek and bland-looking old man who sits before 
you was at this time the talk of the world—would he be 
allowed to land at Tien-tsin? Would he be reinstated? 
Would he be authorized to negotiate terms of peace? He 
seemed to be the only man who understood this great in- 


248 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

temational difficulty. He was allowed to land. He occu¬ 
pied the Viceroy’s Yamen across the river outside the 
walled city (see map northeast of walled city). It was 
important to obtain a stereoscopic record of this distin¬ 
guished personage. Through the courtesy of an Ameri¬ 
can doctor who desired a photograph of the ex-Viceroy 
and who had some acquaintance with Dr. Parks, his medi¬ 
cal adviser, I visited the Yamen. His Excellency being 
engaged with important matters of state, kindly consented 
to sit for us on the following day at a fixed hour. At the 
hour appointed we were met by the genial Dr. Parks, 
who, as soon as I had chosen a well-lighted part of this 
court in the Yamen, had servants bring out this finely in¬ 
laid stand and the chair in which he sits. When cameras 
were placed in position and everything in perfect readi¬ 
ness, his chair-bearers were notified and he was brought 
from his rooms in his official chair and assisted by his at¬ 
tendants to the chair in which you see him. He greeted 
us with a pleasant smile and spoke to us freely through 
Dr. Parks as interpreter. His natural simplicity and the 
entire absence of affected importance was quite fasci¬ 
nating; kingcraft is nearly extinct; the time when a 
sovereign could make his subject revere him as a demigod 
belongs to the past. A truly great man has no occasion to 
pretend greatness; only those who are not great find it 
necessary to resort to affectation. Neither Earl Li’s great 
wealth nor his great attainments have in any degree left a 
trace of self-importance in his manner. His left eye has 
a quizzical droop which seems to be the premonition of an 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


249 


ever-ready smile. He personifies the simplicity and nat¬ 
uralness of a truly great mind. He is vigorous in intel¬ 
lect, but somewhat feeble in his limbs; he is supported to 
and from his palanquin. He is richly dressed in heavy 
brocaded satin. In the front of his cap you see an orna¬ 
ment ; it is a circle of pearls around a large ruby. When 
I asked Dr. Parks if he could remove the cap of his Excel¬ 
lency for one stereograph, the doctor explained to him and 
removed the cap. This caused Earl Li to smile as though 
he would have said: “ What can they want with my bald 
pate ?” Even that fine blackwood table, inlaid with 
mother-of-pearl, upon which his arm rests, is worth notic¬ 
ing ; this style of furniture is much used by the wealthy. 

Nearly all the world is more or less familiar with lead¬ 
ing events in the life of this Bismarck of the Orient; but 
for those who may not be, I will take the following resume 
from “ The Chinese Empire Past and Present.” 

“ The modern development of China is due more to Li 
Hung Chang than to any other single agency. He is im¬ 
mensely wealthy and has held nearly every post of honor 
that China could give him, though likewise at irregular 
intervals, he has been deprived of all position and power; 
his “ yellow jacket ” has been taken from him, and his 
head has been in danger. He was bom in 1819 of pure 
Chinese blood. In three successive literary examinations 
he stood first, and in 1847 was enrolled in the Hanlin or 
Imperial Academy, the highest literary degree in the em¬ 
pire. He was an official in the Imperial printing office 
when the T.aiping Rebellion broke out. In this war he be- 


250 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


came prominent and was appointed governor. He imme¬ 
diately saw the value of European military organization 
and equipment and formed the “ ever-victorious Force,” a 
Chinese Corps, armed, drilled and disciplined according to 
European fashion, first under the direction of the Ameri¬ 
can, Ward, and then of the celebrated Gordon. Hence¬ 
forth Li threw all his force and influence into the adoption 
in China of Western arts and sciences. 

“ In 1870 he was made viceroy of Chili, the province in 
which Pekin is located. 

“ In 1872 he had thirty Chinese boys sent to the United 
States to be educated, and established a college in Pekin, 
under Dr. W. H. P. Martin. 

“ In 1880 he took advantage of the Russian war scare to 
improve the army and navy and establish the telegraph, 
which now comprises a network of over ten thousand 
miles. Simultaneously he worked for railroads. A short 
line had been built from Shanghai to Wusung, but this 
was bought and dismantled the next year by the govern¬ 
ment. Li maintained, however, the agitation for railways 
until in 1888, when an active beginning was made, and the 
work has gone steadily on ever since. In 1877 he bought 
four ironclads just built in England for the royal navy, 
and so laid the foundation for the present Chinese mod¬ 
ern navy. He has likewise so cleverly managed diplo¬ 
matic relations with France upon their nominal victory in 
the war in 1884-85 over Formosa, that China got decided¬ 
ly the best of it in the net result. 

“ Under his encouragement joint stock companies have 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 251 

been organized for various industrial enterprises, such as 
silk, cotton, wool, glass and iron manufactures. 

“ Li Hung Chang belongs to the native party, and is 
ready to resist the encroachments of foreign nations with 
all the arts of diplomacy at his command.” 

With a single spark of patriotism in his breast, how can 
he feel otherwise ? He favors progress and development; 
but how can he look with favor and equanimity upon for¬ 
eign encroachment and the exploitation of his native land 
bv nations whose customs and institutions he does not like. 
China has been the victim of exploitation and commer¬ 
cialism for centuries, and that because she is rich in re¬ 
sources, old-fashioned and unwarlike. 

If she had developed the arts of war as long and as well 
as she has the arts of peace, the foreign nations, even the 
allied foreign nations, would not have dared to coerce 
treaty ports and naval stations in her borders, or to thrust 
a new religion and a new civilization upon her. There is 
much of the bully and the child about all these affairs in 
China. 

When might makes right, justice is usually out of the 
balance, and there is apt to be greed and cowardice in its 
place. 

I have no special love for the Chinese, but it does not 
seem to me that they get fair play. The average Euro¬ 
pean and the average American knows no more about the 
Chinese people than he does about the possible inhabitants 
of the stellar worlds. 

The Boxer uprising was stupid and barbarous. The 


252 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

retaliation by the so-called Christian armies was often 
characterized by rape, plunder, cruelty, and enormous in¬ 
demnities dictated by allied might. The Golden Rule has 
been quite lost sight of in the ravages of trade, greed and 
tyranny. What would we think if England should de¬ 
mand a cession of territory on Casco Bay that she might 
have a winter port for the Canadian Pacific Railway? 
And then, if Russia should demand a naval station on 
Massachusetts Bay to equalize strategic points? And 
again, if these demands should be followed by one from 
Germany for a grant of territory in Plymouth harbor, be¬ 
cause some alien countryman had been killed by irrespon¬ 
sible ruffians at Worcester ? I hope this parallel is not al¬ 
together unfair. It ought, at least, to be suggestive. 

When we had finished our stereographs from this posi¬ 
tion we asked Dr. Parks that His Excellency might be 
carried through the open court into bright sunlight in or¬ 
der that we might obtain a view of him in his official 
chair. This was done, and as we pressed the bulb and 
lifted our hats, the venerable statesman smiled acknowl¬ 
edgments and was borne to his spacious rooms within 
the Yamen. 

A most exasperating delay in the delivery of my pho¬ 
tographic plates kept me in Tien-tsin for weeks after the 
battle. Boxes of plates which arrived at Shanghai June 
24 did not reach me until the middle of September. In 
the meantime many additional forces had arrived, among 
them many additional troops from Germany, from India, 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 253 

from Japan and Russia. The Legations in Pekin had 
been practically in a state of siege since June. In the 
early part of August the greatly increased force of the 
Allies started for Pekin. On the way they fought the 
battles of Peitsang and Yangtsun, and burned the city of 
Tung-Chow and all the villages left standing by the Box¬ 
ers in their line of march. 

This march of the allied troops between Tien-tsin and 
Pekin occupied ten days, and they entered the latter place 
on August 15, just a month and a day after the capture 
of the former city. Now that about twenty thousand 
troops were quartered in the Imperial capital, the trans¬ 
portation of vast quantities of army stores to that place 
was necessary. To accomplish this the different armies 
requisitioned great numbers of native junks, and these 
plied constantly between Tien-tsin and Tung-Chow, the 
nearest port to Pekin. Before boarding one of these junks 
at Tien-tsin for Tung-Chow I shall tell you briefly how I 
maintained my existence during and after the investment 
of the former place. 

It would seem that under even a quasi-military rule, 
civilians have few if any rights; the civilian furnishes the 
sinews of war; he pays the taxes which maintain the 
army and the navy; but he has scarcely a right to his own 
property or his own soul when petty military officers 
are invested with a little brief authority. Many citi¬ 
zens, both American and English, complained bitterly 
of the high-handed, unlawful and impudent way in which 
officers took possession of private houses which had been 


254 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

temporarily vacated, using and misusing everything found 
therein, including libraries, pianos, bedding, etc., not¬ 
withstanding the fact that these same civilian owners are 
paying taxes to furnish the army with all necessary camp 
equipments. Three times I had received permission from 
agents of the owners to occupy private houses which had 
for a time been vacated, when American officers came, and 
in a way which I fear is somewhat characteristic of my 
countrymen said: “ Get out of this; we want these 

rooms! ” An English, a Japanese or a Russian officer 
would have said: “ Sorry to disturb you, but we will re¬ 
quire these rooms.” Bluster is not bravery. Suaviter in 
modo fortiter in re. 

After three removals, by the courtesy of Mr. Denby, 
son of ex-Minister Denby, I was allowed to occupy a 
room in a series of Chinese buildings under his charge. 
Here I remained undisturbed until I went to Pekin. This 
room was my abode for three months; it was my bedroom, 
mv kitchen, my parlor, my developing room. It contained 
some Chinese furniture—a raised platform, or Chinese 
bedstead, a table and some stools. I secured a spirit lamp 
with which I cooked the few things which required cook¬ 
ing. It was some time after the capture of the city of 
Tien-tsin before supplies came in from Shanghai. Dur¬ 
ing that time there was great scarcity, and it was often 
difficult to obtain a sufficiency of food to allay the gnaw¬ 
ings of hunger. To make matters worse, mails had failed 
to bring to the North registered letters and other valuable 
matter. My letter of credit was two months overdue. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


255 


Things were a little uncomfortable when so little food 
could be bought, but when my last penny was gone a 
famine seemed near at hand. I don’t mind missing a few 
meals, but a fast of a few days makes unpleasant cavities 
about one’s anatomy. Fasting has an uncomfortable sen¬ 
sation, but it is more bearable than asking favors of the 
military, which I might have done. I did, however, make 
a pretense of dropping in casually upon the cook of the 
U. S. Marines to ask him if he could spare a little rice. He 
pointed to a small starch-box on the floor half filled with 
rice and clay and straw, saying at the same time, “ That’s 
good rice if you only wash it enough.” I carried it off 
quite thankfully, and, sure enough, when washed in five 
or six waters, it assumed a normal white, and I feasted 
several days upon this, seasoned with a pinch of salt. One 
day during this period of scarcity, while on the street, I 
saw a potato drop from a passing commissary wagon. 
This I seized, and following the wagon for a half-mile 
picked up in all seven potatoes and one onion. With these 
I returned to my room in a mood of triumphant forage; 
1 pared, sliced and boiled them together in a small tin 
pot on my spirit lamp. I seasoned with salt and a small 
portion of rancid oleomargarine left in a tin which had 
been opened two months before. That meal I shall never 
cease to regard as the acme of gastronomic pleasure. Peo¬ 
ple try many things for an appetizer, but seldom try fast¬ 
ing. This veritable feast had predisposed me to potatoes, 
and on another occasion, having seen a quantity of fresh 
potato parings thrown out in a yard near a street, I de- 


256 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

cided to return after night-fall to secure them. When 
night came on, taking a quantity of matches in my pocket 
to enable me to find the exact spot, I walked back one 
mile to obtain this tempting prize of potato parings; but 
on reaching the place a number of officers were seated 
near by and my pride defeated my plan to secure another 
feast, for I could not take them in the presence of the 
officers. I returned bootless and retired to my hard bed 
with hunger unappeased. This state of scarcity continued 
until one day an American soldier came to me, all his 
pockets sagging with syce (bars of silver), and asked me 
to buy. I told him I had no money. Seeing my watch 
and chain, he said, “ What kind of a watch have you ? ” 
I replied, “ A good Elgin watch.” Without a moment’s 
hesitation he offered his bars of silver for my watch. The 
swap ” was promptly consummated, and I had one hun¬ 
dred and fifty dollars worth of silver bullion, that is, about 
twenty pounds. This relieved the money market and in 
some measure the fast, for soon the natives began to re¬ 
turn to the city and to the settlement. After a while they 
commenced to bring in produce, which ended the famine. 
About this time more American troops arrived, one com¬ 
pany encamping in the compound about my room. I 
formed many pleasant acquaintances among these men 
and officers; sometimes giving accommodation to them in 
my room, and in turn they would accompany me in my 
outings with the camera, rendering valuable assistance. 
Through these generous-hearted boys I obtained many 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 257 

war-souvenirs and enjoyed many acts of courtesy; but we 
cannot go further into details. 

We now pass, October 3, to the river before the Quar¬ 
termaster’s office, already shown you, and embark on one 
of the junks requisitioned by the American army to trans¬ 
port supplies to Pekin. 

Turning to Map No. 2, the map of Eastern China, we 
trace the part of our route just before us by the red line 
which runs from Tien-tsin to Pekin. A short distance 
from Tien-tsin we find the number 68 in a circle, both in 
red, with a zig-zag line running to our route line. At this 
place we stop to inspect a line of junk boats on the Pei-ho 
River. 

68 . Junk Flotilla on the Pei-ho River—Transporting 
U. S. Army Stores from Tien-tsin to Pekin. 

General Chaffee’s permit is only for transportation. 
Each traveller must supply his own provisions, cooking 
utensils and bedding. These quaint craft need little de¬ 
scription, as they are before you. They draw only two or 
three feet of water; their shallow holds are filled with 
army supplies. T.he only sleeping-place is under those 
tarpaulins thrown over the poles, and the season is so far 
advanced that the north winds are exceedingly uncom¬ 
fortable. Each boat has a crew of five or six native boat¬ 
men, one of whom acts as captain, each junk being in 
charge of a soldier who cooks his own meals on board. 
Every boat has a small cabin, in which the crew cook and 
sleep. With a favorable wind, a sail is used; at other 


258 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

times each boat is towed by the crew with a line attached 
to the top of the mast. Other lines radiate from the main 
line to accommodate the several men on the tow-path. 
The progress upstream with the tow-line is scarcely a 
mile an hour, and the average time of a passage to Tung- 
Chow is five or six days. You see this fleet of junks be¬ 
fore us is being propelled by the tow-line while its sails 
remain unfurled; you see also something of the tortuous 
course of the river. At certain turns of the river the wind 
is favorable and the sail is spread. Have you noticed how 
those slender bamboo poles are used for expanding the 
sail? Sometimes neither the tow-line nor the sail can be 
used; then poles are employed; these are thrust into the 
muddy bottom at the bow, the end is placed against the 
shoulder and then the coolies walk rapidly to the stern of 
the boat, thumping heavily the deck with their feet at 
every step. This habit of pounding with their feet at 
every step as they push from bow to stern is one of the 
strangest customs among these boatmen. They seem to 
think that it adds to their effort in pushing. The effect 
during the still hours of night is very curious—they “ keep 
step/’ and there are often several fleets passing in oppo¬ 
site directions at the same time, and the rhythmic pound¬ 
ing of so many bare feet on the hollow sounding decks in 
the dead of night I cannot forget. 

The native commerce on this small stream, in boats like 
these, in times of peace, is enormous. The river is nar¬ 
row and shallow and is frequently silting up and changing 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 259 

its bed. The boats touch the banks at many points and 
one can debark and embark almost at any time without 
stopping the progress of the fleet. I found walking on 
the tow-path in the cool autumn weather much pleasanter 
than the deck of a junk like this, and I walked the greater 
part of the distance between Tien-tsin and Pekin. Stand¬ 
ing here, we get a true aspect of the Pei-ho and the kind of 
boats that ply the river; we see also the level character of 
the river plain and the small growth of shrubbery and 
trees in the distance. We get some idea of the alluvial 
soil, though we do not see the prevailing crops. We hap¬ 
pen to be at a place on the river where the cultivated fields 
do not extend up to the river bank. The soil everywhere 
is exceedingly rich, and alternating crops of corn, millet, 
beans, sweet potatoes, peanuts, sorghum and melons have 
marked the fertile valley all the way between these two 
great cities. But the crops have not been harvested; the 
villages and homes are deserted. I said the crops Had not 
been harvested—I meant by the owners; many of them for 
almost a mile on either side of the river have been plun¬ 
dered by the men of the junk-fleets belonging to the dif¬ 
ferent armies. The native junkmen were permitted to 
go ashore and gather in corn and millet to fill all the empty 
space available; the Europeans took whatever they could 
use. The inhabitants had fled well back from the river, 
leaving crops and sometimes live stock. Many a pig that 
had been left behind and ventured to the river bank be¬ 
came a victim to the deadly army rifle. Occasionally some 


26 o 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


of the people who had fled from their homes returned 
under cover of night to gather in something of their wast¬ 
ing harvest. It was a sad sight to see such vast fields of 
valuable crops being lost, and cold winter near at hand 
and starvation awaiting many. On one occasion I at¬ 
tempted, while walking, to cut off a great bend in the river 
by what I imagined would be a short way across country. 
After penetrating about three miles I reached villages con¬ 
taining skulking refugees, at least stragglers, partially in 
hiding. At first sight of me they scampered pell-mell into 
the forests of millet; this grain is often from twelve to 
fifteen feet high and affords a safe and interminable re¬ 
treat. At one farm where a poor old woman carrying a 
bundle of grain on her back attempted to cross the road 
some fifty yards ahead of me, and little suspecting the 
presence of a “ foreign devil ” so far back from the river, 
furtively cast her eyes both ways on the road. She spied 
me, dropped her bundle as though she had been fired upon, 
jumped into the dry millet field and in a moment was out 
of sight. It gave me a sensation of sadness I never be¬ 
fore experienced, and even now, long afterward, it steals 
over me when 1 recall the incident—an innocent, harmless 
fellow mortal fleeing from me in frenzied terror. She 
thought I sought her life; and to be suspected of seeking 
to take life shocked me, I dare say, as much as my 
presence frightened her. It is almost a pity that this terri¬ 
fied woman could not have known that the alarm was 
mutual. By this time I had decided that the road I had 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


261 


been following* did not lead to the river, and was on my 
way back by the same road on which I had come. I was 
sure I was among Boxers. I had no weapon whatever 
about me. I secured two cornstalks and arranged them 
to have the appearance of a gun and carried this make- 
believe affair as I would have carried a gun so that Box¬ 
ers back in the fields would think I was not defenseless. 
In this mood of nervous apprehension I was working my 
way back when the poor terrified woman dived into the 
field of millet. We were much in the same condition ex¬ 
cept that my fright up to that point had not settled in my 
heels quite to the same extent as hers. I, however, made 
good time back to the river. 

Three times a day I made my cocoa by means of my 
spirit lamp, and as often did I have my bread and oleo¬ 
margarine and a fragrant hunk of automatic cheese out 
of a box that once held two five-gallon cans of kerosene 
oil. After walking, sailing, towing and poling for five 
days we reached Tung-Chow, the end of the journey by 
junk. All the nations had a transporation service of 
junks here, and they lined the bank of the river for a 
great distance. It is thirteen miles from Tung-Chow to 
Pekin, and that distance had to be made in a four-mule 
wagon over the worst kind of a road, axle-deep in mud. 
The only accommodation at Tung-Chow was an army tent 
kept for soldiers passing either way. In this I spent the 
night with a single soldier, who shared with me such 
remnants of things eatable as we could find in my kero- 


262 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


sene box. On the following morning, after lashing some 
eight or ten pieces of baggage on the top of a well-filled 
government wagon, I mounted the high seat with a mule 
driver well versed in all up-to-date vocabularies of pro¬ 
fanity for the final stage of my journey from Tung-Chow, 
the nearest port on the Pei-ho River, to Pekin. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


263 


PEKIN. 

About mid-afternoon, after thirteen miles of dislocating 
jolts, and weary with hearing the driver’s lurid swear¬ 
words, we reach the famous capital of the Chinese Em¬ 
pire October 9, 1900. And now that we have arrived, at 
what gate shall we enter ? This same question confronted 
the Allies, and some entered at one gate and some at an¬ 
other. 

That we may get our bearings from the very beginning, 
let us turn to Map No. 8, a plan of Pekin. The vast wall 
which encompasses the city is in the general form of a 
quadrangle, corresponding with the four cardinal points 
of the compass, the greater length lying exactly north and 
south. A transverse wall cuts off the southern third of 
the quadrangle, and within this is the strictly Chinese sec¬ 
tion of Pekin, the Chinese City. The northern two-thirds 
is what is known as the Tartar City. The central position 
of this latter area walled off by itself is the Imperial City, 
and yet within this is the walled Forbidden City. A small 
outline plan of these several city areas is given on the up¬ 
per left-hand side of the main map. This small plan also 
shows the besieged district. The wall of Pekin extends 
about five and one-half miles from north to south, and 
three and one-half miles from east to west. 

Coming from Tien-tsin we have approached the wall on 


264 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

the east side near the junction of the Tartar and Chinese 
cities. At this place the Tung-pien-men or Tung-pien 
Gate opens into the Chinese City. It was at this gate the 
American forces entered. We enter here also and pass 
along within the Chinese City, close to the wall separating 
it from the Tartar City, until we reach the Ha-ta-men, or 
Ha-ta Gate, for our first view of the Chinese Capital. 
Note the two red lines which start from this gate and 
branch toward the left or west, each having the number 69 
at its end outside the wall. We are to stand now on the 
wall, at the point from which these lines start and look 
west over that part of the city lying between them. 

69. West from Ha-ta-men (gate) along Huge Ancient 
Wall between Tartar and Chinese Pekin—Scene 
of a Desperate Charge during Siege. 

We are in Pekin. Here is the great wall stretching 
away before us toward the west, the wall which separates 
the Tartar from the Chinese City. The latter lies on our 
left or south, the former lies on our right or to the north. 
The center of the Legation, or besieged district, lies about 
a half mile in front of us on the right side of the wall. We 
entered at a gate one mile in our rear and followed along 
the left-hand side of this wall, passed through the gate 
beneath us and ascended by a causeway on the right side 
to the top of the wall, and then by a flight of steps to a 
floor in the wooden tower about thirty feet above the wall, 
on which we now stand. You can see a canal or moat 
running parallel with the wall on our left, but it seldom 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 265 

contains water. Notice particularly the gigantic propor¬ 
tions of this wall, much greater than those of the Great 
Wall of China, which are only about twenty-five feet in 
height and from fifteen to twenty feet in thickness, while 
this wall of the Tartar City is forty feet in height, fifty 
feet in thickness at the base and thirty-six feet at the top. 
Note, too, the massive buttresses flanking the wall to a 
thickness of sixty feet at intervals of a hundred yards; it 
is paved on top with large gray brick and surmounted by 
crenelated parapets, but shrubbery and weeds cover this 
pavement in many places. On the top of those flanking 
towers are scattered unmounted, ancient Chinese cannon, 
such as you may see illustrated in Webster’s Pictorial Dic¬ 
tionary under Chinese cannon; others of a later period, 
but yet ancient, and mounted on rude wheels, are found 
in the tower on which we stand. 

Keep clearly in mind the location of the gate a mile be¬ 
hind us where we passed within the wall, the same at 
which the American troops entered. The English force 
came in on the same side at a gate three-fourths of a mile 
southward, and followed a principal thoroughfare in the 
Chinese City, running parallel to this wall, until they 
reached another thoroughfare running at right angles to 
the street already mentioned and passing through this 
wall at a point half-way between us and the gate which 
we can see far away on the horizon. Yonder gate in the 
distance is a very important one both in connection with 
the Boxer war and in reference to its important central 
location between the Chinese and Tartar cities. It is the 


266 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


Chien Gate found on the map as the center gate of this 
wall. Later we shall stand upon the ruins of its tower, 
on the very spot where the brave Reilly fell while in com¬ 
mand of his famous battery. The Americans passed 
through that gate on their way to the Legations, after 
passing along that open space by the dry canal on the left 
of the wall. At certain points a troublesome fire was di¬ 
rected upon them from the top of the wall; but not from 
the portion of the wall some distance in front of us, as 
that part was captured by a daring sortie from the 
hemmed-in Legations. To the right of this wall, not two 
hundred yards away, is a parallel street; it is called Lega¬ 
tion Street; and on or near that street the Legations are 
located. You may know, therefore, how this wall over¬ 
looks and commands the Legations, which you will under¬ 
stand better when we advance to a point abreast of them. 
The gate over which we stand and the one in the distance 
are a mile apart. Three miles away you can see the faint 
outlines of the Umbrella Pagoda, and beyond you can 
dimly descry the western hills, thirteen miles away. The 
Summer Palace of the Empress is located on the slopes 
of those same hills, which we may visit later. 

We are looking upon historic ground; every prospect 
bears a record of thirty centuries of human life and ac¬ 
tivity, and events of the past year have added another 
chapter. Some of the most thrilling events of this latest 
chapter transpired on this wall between these two gates. 
The English and American Legations are to the right of a 
point midway between them. You see a partial barricade 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 267 

of brick just before us, and beyond the small building; 
you see another at the second small building, and further 
on you see others extending half way across the top of the 
wall; still further on there is one extending quite across; 
that is nearly abreast of the English Legation. That point 
of the wall, for some unaccountable reason, the Chinese 
never occupied; they had approached it from both gates, 
fighting and holding their ground with great tenacity until 
only a short distance was unoccupied. 

This gate, over which we are standing, was occupied 
all through the siege by the Chinese, and from here the 
Legations were badly harassed by cannon fire. Between 
this gate and the Chien Gate the American soldiers were 
on guard and were so worn with constant watching that 
Captain Meyers thought the wall must be abandoned. 
Minister Conger thought to abandon the wall would only 
mean death to all the Legations, as the Chinese could oc¬ 
cupy such an advantageous position and shoot directly 
into the foreign lines. As a last resort a midnight charge 
was decided upon, hoping thereby to rid the wall further 
west of the Chinese and give more space for the Ameri¬ 
cans. The gallant Captain Meyers, with a force of fifty- 
five men, consisting of American, English and Russian 
marines, were to make the charge. It was a desperate 
undertaking for fifty-five men to attack unknown hun¬ 
dreds, perhaps thousands, in front of them. But it was 
well and bravely done. The wall was gained, fifty 
Chinese were killed. Captain Meyers was severely 
wounded, but he finally recovered. 


268 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


This well-planned and bravely executed sortie at this 
moment was justly considered the salvation of the be¬ 
leaguered inmates of the British Legation; for if the en¬ 
emy had succeeded in planting their guns on the wall be¬ 
tween these two gates the raking fire at close range would 
inevitably have destroyed all in a brief space of time. 

A branch canal from that dry one on our left leads 
north beneath the wall at the point I have just mentioned 
in line with the British Legation. The opening beneath 
the wall, called the Water Gate, was barricaded; but it 
was through this that the first of the relief force reached 
the Legation. A missionary lady in the Legation told me 
that the first men she saw were a Sikh soldier and an 
English officer who had crawled through the Water Gate 
beneath the wall. The first greetings were: “ I am so 
glad to see you! ” and the reply, “ I suppose you are! 
about as brief and expressive as Caesar’s famous speech, 
“ Veni, vidi, vici” 

Before we stroll along the top of this wall to a place 
where you can see the barricades and the Legations, I 
must ask you to face directly towards the north from the 
top of the wall, below the tower in which we are now 
standing. 

Turn to the map of Pekin and find the two red lines 
which start slightly east of the Ha-ta Gate and branch to 
the north wall of the city. The number 70 in a circle is 
connected with their starting point and is also found with¬ 
out a circle at the end of each line. We are to look over 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 269 

that considerable portion of the Tartar City which lies be¬ 
tween those lines. 

70. North from Ha-ta-men (gate) over Scene of the 
German Minister, Baron Ketteler’s, Murder, now 
called Von Ketteler Street, Pekin. 

Looking out over this scene you will obtain a better idea 
of the appearance of Pekin than chapters of description 
could give; the buildings scarcely need description; you 
see them very distinctly. This street, however, is slightly 
Europeanized by being macadamized for a short distance, 
owing, I presume, to its proximity to Legation Street, 
which is the first street leading west down on our left. A 
narrow surface drain extends along the street for a short 
distance, as you see; this is also an innovation we will 
attribute to the Europeans; no normal Chinaman of to¬ 
day could ever comprehend the advantages of a sewer. 
Nowhere else in Pekin can a piece of paved street or a 
single yard of sewerage be found, barring Legation 
Street, which is altogether European. 

This northern part of Pekin was built by the Mongol 
conquerors about eight hundred years ago. Kublai Khan 
thought bad luck was attached to the old city to the south, 
so he had that city destroyed and built this northern city, 
giving it wide streets, as the Mongols were used to plenty 
of air on the prairies to the north. He also built the 
northern city much larger than at present. Under most 
of the streets in those days fine stone sewers were made, 
but they have been filled up with debris by the Chinamen 


270 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

of later times. Pekin could easily be made into a beau¬ 
tiful city. Splendid springs of clear cold water burst from 
the mountain-side ten miles to the north, and old Kublai 
Khan had aqueducts made to bring the water into the 
city. These also have fallen into disuse. The Manchu, 
or reigning dynasty, are Tartars. Said one European 
resident of Pekin: “ The Manchus are lazy and growing 
lazier every year. If the recent troubles in China should 
eventuate in driving the Manchus back to their native 
home in Manchuria, no one would mourn.” 

This street before us has been rendered famous by the 
murder of the German Minister, Baron von Ketteler, 
whose name it now bears, being formerly called Ha-ta-men 
Street. The German Legation is near the other Legations, 
about a half mile to the left from where you see its termi¬ 
nation on Von Ketteler Street below us. Along that side 
street came the German Minister on June 20, accompanied 
by his Secretary, and turned north on the street stretching 
away in front of us. Soon he was to be followed by the 
Ministers of the other Legations, on the way to the Tsung- 
li Yamen or Foreign Office. The Minister and his Secre¬ 
tary were in their official chairs and had reached a point in 
the distance near where you see what seems to be a dark 
arch across the way. A narrow street extending from 
Von Ketteler Street toward the east at that point leads to 
the Tsung-li Yamen, as the map shows. On that street 
the Minister was attacked in his chair and killed. 

The story of the murder of Baron von Ketteler and the 
wounding of his Secretary are too well known to need 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


271 


repetition. The wounded Secretary made his way to the 
American Mission, which lies to the west of the place of 
attack and in the vicinity of that small white tower which 
rises from among those trees quite beyond the larger 
building with the white roof; that is another way back to 
the Legations. 

While we are looking along this important thorough¬ 
fare, allow me to locate certain places, some of which we 
may hereafter visit. Should we follow one of the first 
side streets leading to our right one mile we would reach 
the east wall of the Tartar City, at a point where the fa¬ 
mous Observatory is located and which we will show you 
later; and near it is situated the Examination Hall. A 
short distance beyond the Tsung-li Yamen is the head¬ 
quarters of the Inspector General of Customs, Sir Robert 
Hart. At the extreme end of this street and outside the 
wall is a great temple called Ti-tan, or Altar of Earth. It 
is over three miles distant and we can see it looming up in 
the horizon. At the farther end of this street, slightly to 
the right, we shall visit later the great Lama Temple. 
Those two temples stand near the northern limit of the 
Tartar City; but there are remains of an ancient wall two 
miles beyond that, which was the northern limit of the 
capital of the Mongol Dynasty. Observe the level charac¬ 
ter of the site of this great city, how great the distances 
and how the whole area is interspersed with trees. In 
many parts of both the Tartar and the Chinese City there 
are large tracts quite vacant. It is verily a city of great 
walls and great distances, and, I might add, of great filth 


272 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


and great cowards. In the dry season the main streets are 
ankle deep with fine dust, and when carts or caravans pass 
along, it rises and floats in great clouds, covering every¬ 
thing and infiltrating everywhere. Observe, also, how the 
side of the street is lined with booths, where all kinds of 
wares are sold. After the city was occupied by the Allies, 
the last two miles of this great street was one of the great¬ 
est loot-marts in the city; mats and cloths were spread out 
on the sides of the street and articles for sale were laid 
thereon, and in that way the place became a wilderness of 
all sorts of things, and the haunt of curio hunters. 

We shall now turn away from this view northward 
along Von Ketteler Street and proceed along the top of 
the wall westward to a point nearly opposite the British 
Legation. 

Our position and field of vision is given on the map of 
Pekin by the two red lines which start from near the 
Water Gate in the wall between the Tartar and Chinese 
Cities, half a mile west of our previous positions, and ex¬ 
tend to the north wall of the city. The number 71 is 
given at the beginning and at the ends of these lines. 

7x. British Legation, Scene of Heroic Fortitude dur¬ 
ing the Terrible Siege,—from Barricaded City 
Wall—Pekin. 

We are again looking northward from the top of the 
wall, and that large two-story building beyond the bridge 
is the most prominent building of the British Legation. 
It is surrounded by many one-story buildings, which do 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 273 

not show distinctly behind walls and surrounding trees. 
A wall incloses the compound on every side. T.hat was 
the center of the besieged district. Probably never in his¬ 
tory was the interest and anxiety of the entire civilized 
world so centered on one small spot as on that British Le¬ 
gation during the months of June and July of 1900. For 
sixty days four thousand human beings were penned 
within those narrow quarters, and not only living on 
limited food supplies, but under an incessant hail of can¬ 
non and rifle fire. Since this place before us is so full of 
history, episode and thrilling association, let us make a 
careful inspection of it from our commanding outlook. 
First note the fatal stupidity of the enemy in not gaining 
this position, from which, with the modern artillery in their 
possession, they could have swept the Legation with a 
plunging fire and annihilated the four thousand inmates in 
a few hours. I pointed out to you the eastern end of Le¬ 
gation Street from our last position; here again you may 
see it where it passes over that low arched bridge between 
us and the British Legation. The French and German 
Legations are a short distance toward the right from 
that bridge; the Russian and American are to the 
left. A canal at this time dry, passes beneath that bridge 
past the English Legation and on toward another bridge 
in the distance. It was on the second bridge that Profes¬ 
sor James was killed as he was returning from doing what 
he could to find a place for the suffering native Christians. 
I have already mentioned that canal as issuing from the 
canal on the south side of the wall and passing beneath 


274 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

through a small barricaded opening known as the Water 
Gate, at which the English first entered. That now his¬ 
toric gate is almost below us, a little to the left, as you 
may see, by the course of the so-called canal. The main 
entrance to the English Legation is toward the canal at the 
beginning of the row of trees. Out of that entrance be¬ 
neath those trees rushed the long-imprisoned, the long- 
besieged Ministers and missionaries to welcome their de¬ 
liverers. Try to imagine the emotions of those people as 
they saw the brave American and English boys, covered 
with the grime and dust of a ten days’ march in the hot 
sun, reach Legation Street at the bridge and turn toward 
them. Sixty days in hourly expectation of massacre, and 
now the space between them and the bridge filling up with 
serried lines of guns which means deliverance. Could 
there have been present some sort of a cardioscope, if I 
may coin a word, to register heart-beats and emotions, 
what a picture we would have had! Think of four thou¬ 
sand choking utterances of the greeting aforementioned: 
“ I’m so glad to see you! ” But we must be satisfied to 
merely look upon the place. 

We have heard of the sinking and explosion of mines 
during the siege of the Legation; so I must point out the 
locality where they were sunk. The second bridge marks 
a street running parallel with Legation Street; following 
that street a short distance to the left to a point about in 
line with the conical hill in the distance, you will reach the 
entrance to the Imperial stables on this side of the street, 
and not a great distance from the rear portions of the 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 275 

Legation Compound. There shafts were sunk and a tun¬ 
nel was under construction toward the Legation; with a 
little longer delay in the relief it would have been under 
the Legation, with such results as one may conceive. 
Give your attention next to that area of ground lying be¬ 
yond the British Legation and extending to the street in 
the distance; it seems to be now mostly covered with trees 
because the important buildings standing there before the 
outbreak have been razed to the ground. It is the site of 
the famous Hanlin Yuen College, the great national school 
of the Empire in which all Chinese learning and literature 
were centered. The Classics of Confucius inscribed on tab¬ 
lets of marble were treasured there; these are gone; the 
twenty thousand volumes of precious literature are gone; 
and this venerable institution, founded a thousand years 
before the Christian era an alma mater from periods im¬ 
memorial, is a heap of ruins below the level of those trees. 
The loss of thousands of volumes of ancient records re¬ 
calls the destruction of the Alexandrian Library as an ir¬ 
reparable loss; not so many precious books, perhaps, yet 
the Hanlin College antedated the Alexandrian Library by 
nearly seven hundred years; but what do Boxers care for 
colleges or precious tomes of ancient literature! 

I have already mentioned that sharp hill in the distance. 
We must give special attention to that place; it is historic; 
by its prominence it is a landmark in Pekin; in a little 
while we shall stand upon its summit and overlook the 
Sacred City. We shall see it from other standpoints, and 
so it will serve as a guide to us in the matter of position 


276 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

and direction over the wide-spread city. It is said to be 
artificial and to consist of coal, which can be used in case 
of siege; this is tradition, however, which is often no more 
than the gossip of history. The Chinese call it Mei-shan, 
which signifies Coal-hill. History relates the tragic death 
of Tsung Cheng, the last emperor of the Ming dynasty, 
who hanged himself on that hill when the victorious 
hordes of the Manchus entered the capital. Between us 
and Coal Hill I think you can discern the outline of the 
wall of the Imperial City. You can see this wall plainly 
at the farther end of this street. The Sacred or Forbidden 
City, surrounded also by a heavy wall in the form of a 
quadrangle, lies directly south of Coal Hill. During the 
siege the Chinese erected an emplacement on the wall of 
the Forbidden City at the end of this street on which was 
planted a cannon which gave the Legations the most 
trouble. It was not until the famous “ Aunt Betsey ” was 
found and put to use by an ingenious American that its 
fire could be stopped. 

I should mention while we have this Legation before us 
that the artillery mounted on the wall of the Forbidden 
City was not the only artillery brought to bear on the in¬ 
mates ; guns were also mounted on the east wall off to our 
right, and toward the west near the Chien Gate. 

Now look toward those trees, opposite the Legation, 
across the canal. Among those trees was the beautiful 
home of a Chinese prince who had always been friendly 
with the Europeans, and when the trying ordeal came he 
proved a prince indeed, turning over to the Legations the 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 277 

use of his home for the native Christian refugees, and de¬ 
livering up for their use all foodstuffs in his possession. 
I had the pleasure of meeting and making the picture of 
this noble Chinaman while at the London Mission. I be¬ 
lieve, however, he is prince by royal appointment and not 
by birth. He is a man of fine appearance, as princely in 
manner as he has proved himself generous at heart, and 
is known as Prince Su. 

The Chinaman near us is a native Christian whose 
whole family was killed by the Boxers. He so despaired 
of his own life that he gave up hope, and once tried to 
commit suicide. He has only one eye, and is afraid per¬ 
haps he will lose that if he looked into a foreign camera. 

This barricade was built by the Legation guards after 
driving back the Chinese by the concerted night sortie. 
This was the easterly barricade occupied by the American 
soldiers, who could, on the one hand, keep in check the 
Chinese at the Ha-ta Gate to our right, and on the other 
control somewhat the canal in front and assist in case the 
enemy tried to cross it. 

Barricades such as these were thrown up at frequent 
intervals along the top of the wall in the rear of the Lega¬ 
tions, as we have seen. The material was taken from the 
wall and shows you the kind and size of bricks of which it 
is built. I will now try to familiarize you with the aspect 
of Legation Street by asking you to go down to the left 
end of that bridge and mount to the roof of a small build¬ 
ing and look to the right or eastward. 

On the map we find our position and the direction in 


278 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

which we are to look by the two red lines which start on 
Legation Street, a short distance above the Water Gate, 
and extend toward the east. The left-hand line stops at 
Von Ketteler Street, the right-hand line reaches the map 
margin, and each has the number 72 at its end. 

72. One of the Typical 44 Freight Trains” of China- 
looking East on Legation Street at a Caravan 
from Tien-tsin—Pekin. 

It is three-fourths of a mile to the eastern end of this 
street on Ha-ta-men or Von Ketteler Street, heretofore 
pointed out to you. On the right-hand side of the street, 
one-eighth of a mile distant, we can see a portion of the 
German Legation building from which the German Minis¬ 
ter departed on his fatal mission on June 20. To the 
left, the building next to that tree, with a flag-pole above 
it, is the entrance of the Spanish Legation, where I will 
escort you later to see the Foreign Ministers leaving the 
Legation after an important sitting. One-fourth of a 
mile from where we stand, on the left-hand side of the 
street, is the French Legation, which we shall visit next. 
Behind us, one-eighth of a mile, is the American Legation 
on the same side of the street on which we stand. Oppo¬ 
site to it is the Russian Legation. And surely you have 
not forgotten the location of the British Legation behind 
us and to our left by the canal. When we again ascend 
the wall we shall look over the American Legation. 

The camel train is a typical scene in the streets of 
Pekin. Carts are used to some extent for transportation, 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 279 

but for long distances the patient, loping camel is the 
chief burden-bearer. In our own country we see freight 
trains of sometimes well-nigh a hundred cars. In north¬ 
ern China we may see a caravan of a hundred camels. 
They come from points south and from the interior carry¬ 
ing produce; for you may be reminded that agricultural 
production is quite limited in the vicinity of Pekin. It is 
too far north. We find here the beginning of that barren¬ 
ness which reaches its culmination in the sandy deserts of 
Mongolia. How these meek and uncomplaining trans¬ 
portation drudges must rejoice in the prospective com¬ 
pletion of the Siberian Railway with its branch to Pekin! 
For ages caravans like this have been threading their way 
over mountains and burning sands for two thousand miles 
between .Siberia and the Chinese Capital. We do not see 
the farther end of the caravan before us; it may be a mile 
back. 

You can see the barricade of brick thrown up on the 
wall of the bridge; this defensive preparation evidently 
anticipated the occupation of the wall facing this by the 
enemy. We do not here see many traces of shots on the 
walls of the buildings; this is owing to the circumstance 
that we are here in the line between fires from opposite 
directions. The attacks were chiefly from the east and 
from the west—from the Ha-ta Gate and beyond it to the 
east, and from the direction of the Chien Gate and the 
west and northwest. Should we go back to the American 
Legation we would see the west sides of the building rid¬ 
dled with bullets; and should we go eastward till we 


280 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


reached the east sides of the French and German Lega¬ 
tions we would find the same condition. We shall go 
where we can see each of these Legations in a few minutes. 
But first let us glance at those figures nearest us in the 
caravan. You can see some French soldiers in the dis¬ 
tance, and a couple of American soldiers to our right on 
the bridge, and the familiar looking telegraph poles and 
wires which a stranger might be surprised to find in Pekin. 

Let us now go forward along this Legation Street just 
one-fourth of a mile to the French Legation, then turn 
around and look back in this direction. On the map, 
about half way between our present position and Von Ket- 
teler Street, find two short red lines, connected with the 
number 73, which branch off toward the left or west. 

73. Reminders of the Terrible Eight Weeks* Siege 
—Ruins of the French Legation on Legation 
Street, Pekin , 

We are now looking west toward the bridge at which 
we stood to see the camel train. Ruins of the French 
Legation are nearest us on our right, and this shows us 
the woeful destruction of the more exposed quarters of 
the foreigners. Here the fire was as hot as anywhere. 
This corner was blown up by a mine, burying two 
Frenchmen and many Chinese. A cannon ball came 
through the wall of this Legation and carried off the head 
of Mr. Wagener, a gentleman in the customs service. On 
the paved street to our left a young Russian was killed; 
he had been drinking heavily and did not know the direc- 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


281 


tion he was going. Just beyond the head of that ragged 
woman near us you can see a narrow depression in the 
road. That is the remnant of the trench dug by the 
Chinese across the road, and marks the place of their near¬ 
est barricade. 

The destruction wrought by fire and shells has been 
largely obliterated; the debris has been removed. The 
street itself is restored almost to its original appearance. 
Of course some telegraph poles have hardly been brought 
back to the perpendicular; and some portions of the barri¬ 
cades remain. The lions before the door of the Legation 
seem to have been imbued with the alleged Boxer impene¬ 
trability, for there they stand, at least one of them, un¬ 
scarred and as rampant as ever. These pitted walls tell 
of the risks and difficulties and the impossibility of a 
longer tenure of these buildings; notice also the scarred 
remnant of that tree by the telegraph post. The marks 
even show the direction of the bullets as coming directly 
from the locality of the Ha-ta Gate; and now we can un¬ 
derstand why we saw no traces of bullets on walls facing 
the west, from our last position. We see only the entrance 
to the Legation; the buildings belonging to all the Lega¬ 
tions are Chinese, and they are always back in the com¬ 
pound a short distance from the gate. As usual every¬ 
thing is inclosed in walls, and, as heretofore stated, the 
Chinese are a nation of wall-builders. Notice how the 
Legations have improved this street; it is macadamized 
and sewered and lined with lamp posts, although I see 
none here. This is the way to the Tsung-li Yamen; this 


282 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


is the street along which all the Ministers are carried in 
their official chairs to the Chinese Foreign Office. 

There is a ragged and miserable looking beggar woman 
before us. I told my porter, who stands there by the tele¬ 
graph pole, to ask this poor woman to stand a moment till 
1 made a picture of the street; her poverty was greater 
than her prejudice against the photographic thing of evil, 
and she stood and earned her alms. 

The great south wall of the Tartar City, upon which we 
have stood several times, is only a short distance to our 
left. We must ascend it again and pass along its top to¬ 
ward the west and past the place from which we looked 
down to the British Legation, to a point in the rear of the 
American Legation. On the map our position and field 
of vision is given more definitely by the two red lines 
which start at the wall just west of the Water Gate and 
reach beyond the northern city wall. The number 74 is 
found near the starting point of these lines and at their 
ends. 


74. The Bullet-scarred American Legation from Bar¬ 
ricaded City Wall—Forbidden City and Coal 
Hill in Distance—Pekin. 

There are some things in this part of the city which you 
will not, I am sure, fail to recognize; you see far away 
that land-mark previously mentioned, that Coal Hill on 
which the last of the Mings hanged himself, and which 
has become famous in tradition and in history. And you 
will verily not fail to recognize that ever-endeared em- 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 283 

blem of liberty and of our country which floats out there 
over those trees and over China. Even the slow natives 
soon learned to know the import of the Stars and Stripes. 
To carry or display a flag was a claim to the protection of 
the nation to which the flag belonged. The American flag 
was in great demand; everything in the way of an Ameri¬ 
can flag was bought or secured in some way, and when the 
supply was exhausted the Chinese mothers and daughters 
ransacked their homes for bits of red, of white and of 
blue which they speedily sewed into a funny semblance of 
the American flag. They had soon learned that the Amer¬ 
icans treated them with more consideration and fair play 
than some other of the nations; and that the Stars and 
Stripes meant, even to them, liberty and protection. 

The flag is over the entrance of the American Legation, 
on Legation Street. The large two-storv structure is the 
main building. Dr. Lippert received a terrible wound 
standing by the side of that house. It is surrounded by 
low one-story buildings occupied by attaches of the Le¬ 
gation. First Secretary Squiers has quarters just beyond 
the trees to the right of the main building. Mr. Bain- 
bridge, the Second Secretary, and Mrs. Bainbridge, occu¬ 
pied rooms on the second floor of the main building. A 
shell burst in those apartments. All the members of the 
Legation were finally obliged to seek shelter in the British 
Compound. You can readily see the exposed position of 
this Legation. It is scarcely more than a stone’s-throw 
from the wall. How unaccountable that the Chinese did 
not at once gain this advantageous position! They un- 


284 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

doubtedly thought that all those low buildings were filled 
with legation guards, and they are evidently not fond of 
taking great risks. The walls of the rooms of the Second 
Secretary on the west side of the building were pitted all 
over with rifle bullets. Some of the Chinese arsenals 
were stored with vast quantities of excellent bows and ar¬ 
rows. These could almost have been used effectively at 
this short range. In line with the Legation we can dis¬ 
cern superstructures connected with the large gate which 
is the entrance to the Sacred City on the south. The gate 
at the left with the small flanking towers on either side is 
the main entrance. It is on a line southward from Coal 
Hill to the Chien Gate. 

All these nearer Chinese houses are to be removed for 
the new Legations. Observe again how the guards have 
thrown up temporary defenses; this continues for a 
great distance, and the replacing of these bricks and the 
general restoration of this wall will involve much labor for 
the Pekinese brick-layer. The irregular nature of this 
barricade was necessary because the men were fired at 
from all directions. You also meet again my unfortunate 
one-eyed native, correctly typifying the national life— 
meek, phlegmatic and immobile. 

We have still an inadequate idea of the destruction 
wrought in the vicinity of the Legations by the Boxers. 
If we now go to the Chien Gate, to our left, and look to¬ 
ward the northeast over the territory lying to the west and 
north of the American Legation, we shall realize more 
fully the havoc done during the siege. On the map of 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 285 

Pekin find the Chien Gate, directly south of the Forbidden 
City. We are to see the section lying between the two red 
lines which branch toward the northeast, each having the 
number 75 at its end on the map margin. 

75. Ruins Around the Legations Burned by Chinese, 
from Chien-men (gate) where Captain Reilly was 
Killed—Pekin. 

When we stood on the Ha-ta Gate for our first view in 
Pekin, we looked westward along the wall to the Chien 
Gate, which we could see in the distance, about a mile 
away. I told you then that later we would visit the 
latter and stand on the place where Captain Reilly fell. 
Now we are on that spot, as nearly as I could have it lo¬ 
cated, and looking a little north of east and toward the 
British Legation, which we can see in the middle distance 
to the right of that tall pole. 

The Boxers and Imperial troops in the vicinity of this 
gate, after repeated attempts on the united Legations, 
thought to facilitate further attacks by burning the inter¬ 
vening portion of the city. T.he fire did its work, as you 
see; but the troops failed in theirs. I was told by good 
authorities that this burned district, destroyed ruthlessly 
and uselessly, represented, at a low estimate, five million 
dollars’ worth of property. Here were the Ginseng shops, 
which drug the Chinese prize so highly. The fire that 
swept this district also swept away the Methodist Mission 
and the Austrian, Belgian, Netherland and French Lega¬ 
tions. The day after the foreign armies entered the city 


286 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


the guns of Captain Reilly’s battery were mounted on this 
gate and trained on the gates of the Imperial City, which 
lie north of us to our left; after the gates had been demol¬ 
ished and the way cleared for the entry of the troops, and 
at the moment of victory the gallant leader, standing 
where we now stand, was instantly killed by a rifle bullet. 

This gate is one of the largest and one of the most im¬ 
posing and important in Pekin; the entire upper structure 
is burned and is now only a mass of ruins. 

A great thoroughfare lies beneath us. Toward our left 
or the north it leads through lofty gateways into the Im¬ 
perial City and thence into the Palace, which embraces 
a large area surrounded by massive walls; southward or 
to our right it leads across the southern or Chinese portion 
of the city. We are to turn southward for a half mile and 
visit this central highway. 

76. Busy Markets in Chinese ( Southern ) Pekin—On 
Kaiser or Chien-men Street, between South Gate 
and Chien-men {gate), Pekin • 

We looked down into Von Ketteler Street from the 
Ha-ta Gate (Stereograph No. 70) ; now we are in Chien- 
men Street, or, as the Germans call it, Kaiser Street, and 
there are other places with Teutonic cognomens, until it 
almost looks as though Germany was going to extort a 
namesake indemnity from poor “ John.” 

T.his street extends from the extreme southern gate of 
the Chinese City to the gate of the Imperial City. We are 
looking northeast again. (On the map see the red lines 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 287 

connected with number 76, south of the Chien Gate.) The 
scene before us is typical of this busy street. It is all 
trade and no recreation; there are stands for the sale of 
all sorts of queer comestibles quite beyond the comprehen¬ 
sion of Western cooks. It seems to be an out-door res¬ 
taurant along the entire street; there are buckets, tubs, 
pots and pans, baskets containing rice, vessels containing 
fruit which I recognize to be a fine large species of the 
persimmon. I see bakers and what appears to be flour on 
some tables; if flour it is rice flour, which is in general 
use for many purposes. The people here all appear dirty 
and ragged, and so they are; they are all of the lower 
class—the unwashed and unkempt horde. You may 
notice they are clad in warm garments, in quilted coats, 
and all wearing shoes and stockings. Winter is coming 
on; it is November and the winds are sharp and a thin ice 
coats the pools. The climate in Pekin corresponds with 
that of New York. Out there in the street is the ever¬ 
present wheelbarrow. On the other side of the street are 
crowds lingering by stands of haberdashery, and, indeed, 
stands for the sale of all conceivable commodities from 
junk to jade and other gems. We see some pieces of mat¬ 
ting not yet unrolled; this will be spread out in the sand 
and dust, and articles for sale placed upon it. The oppo¬ 
site side of this street, like Von Ketteler Street, to which I 
have already referred, has been a mart for the sale of loot. 
It is seldom that one does not see something inviting 
where eatables are for sale, but in China never, barring, 
possibly, natural fruits. Here we fail to see such things 


288 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


as desiccated rats and boiled bugs; but if they are not 
here they are elsewhere for sale in the Empire; for I have 
bought the former in the markets of Canton and eaten the 
latter in the same place, although only in a tentative sort 
of a way. 

There is a disappointing similarity in the appearance of 
the people in all parts of China; they are said to be much 
larger and stronger in the north, and I presume they are 
in the average; but the difference is not very marked. In 
the groups we have seen in the south and in the north I 
scarcely think you have noticed a great difference; prob¬ 
ably you will say that they seem darker in complexion 
among the lower classes in the north, and I think they are. 

Only a few miles behind us is a branch of the Young 
Men’s Christian Association. No more commendable ex¬ 
ample of applied Christianity could be found. On the 
map see the two red lines connected with the number 77, 
in the center of the Chinese City. 

77. F. M. C. A . Rooms for Soldiers of the Allied 
Armies—formerly a Notorious Dive—on the Busi¬ 
est Street of Pekin. 

What a difference in the meaning of that sign to these 
thronging Orientals and to the soldiers passing up and 
down this street! 

T.he beginning of the Spanish-American war aroused 
new interest in the American army and navy and recalled 
to the public mind the fact that while ample provision was 
made by the government for clothing, feeding and arming 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 289 

the American soldier and sailor, it could not provide 
through strictly military channels those mental, moral and 
social influences required for the best development of 
young manhood. Beginning three days after the first call 
for volunteers in 1898 down to the present, the one agency 
that has most diligently and systematically endeavored to 
supply these needs of the soldier and sailor has been the 
Young Men’s Christian Association. In southern camps, 
under the sunny skies of Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philip¬ 
pines, or in frozen Alaska, the men in blue have found the 
Association anticipating their needs, and with well- 
equipped places of resort bountifully supplied with games, 
books, magazines, writing paper and other comforts, has 
made it possible for the soldier and sailor to keep in touch 
with civil life and remain good men as well as good 
fighters. 

The Association’s enterprise was shown by one of the 
secretaries representing the International Committee in 
New York, pushing to the front with one of the columns 
which relieved the besieged legations here at Pekin. 
About the same time another secretary was detached from 
the force in the Philippine Islands, where a large work had 
been conducted since the American occupation and sent to 
organize the movement in China wherever American 
troops should be called. At Tien-tsin, Tongku and vari¬ 
ous less important stations this was done, the activity cul¬ 
minating in securing the building before us which had 
been a notorious gambling and opium den until closed by 
military authority. As soon as permission for its use was 


290 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

secured it was made the headquarters for a line of similar 
buildings in various parts of this city, differing from the 
others only in the fact that it was located so as to be ac¬ 
cessible to the allied armies. Situated as it is in this 
Chinese City at the junction of the American, German and 
British camps, it was naturally more used by the troops 
of these armies than by the troops of other nations, but all 
were found in the building, and when games were unfa¬ 
miliar or books and papers were found to be printed in an 
unknown tongue, or lectures, sermons and songs were un¬ 
intelligible, the Sikh, Japanese, French or Italian could 
pen a message home on paper that bore the Association 
imprint and meet in fellowship in the lunch and coffee 
rooms which were powerful in restraining men from pat¬ 
ronizing the dens of infamy with which every Oriental 
city is so well supplied. 

Here again we have before us a typical crowd in this 
important Chien-men (great street). While the buildings 
are used for stores, still the most active merchandizing is 
carried on in the open air. Something much trafficked in 
here is Chinese coal, a mixture of coal dust and clay, and 
is sold in baskets. Shoes and other articles of clothing 
are bought and sold alongside the open air restaurants, 
where such toothsome dishes as grasshoppers, dog flesh 
and vegetable mixtures are served to the fastidious but 
hungry wayfarer who wishes to have some change from 
rice and tea diet. 

Off to our right, or to the northeast, is the gate through 
which the American army entered the city. South of us 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


29I 


lie the Temples of Heaven and Agriculture, which were 
the headquarters of the British and American forces dur¬ 
ing the winter of 1900 and 1901. Only a short distance 
west of us is the place of public execution, where two of 
the Boxer princes were executed among the other crimi¬ 
nals during the occupancy of the Allies. 

Now that we have seen Chien-men Street in the Chinese 
City and know how' it appears, how low and mean-looking 
the buildings are, how ragged and miserable the common 
street sellers are, we shall follow this same street directly 
north to the Chien Gate again, thence we shall pass east¬ 
ward a short distance along Legation Street, thence north¬ 
ward outside the wall of the Imperial City about half its 
length, until w^e reach a breach in the wall made by the 
Allies to facilitate transportation. This we enter and 
thereby conveniently gain access to Coal Hill, which we 
have already seen several times at a distance. It is about 
one hundred and fifty feet high, and from its summit we 
are to obtain fine prospects of the more important parts of 
the city. 

We find the location of Coal Hill on the map practically 
in the center of the area inclosed by the Tartar City wall. 
It is also near the center of the Imperial City area, and 
just north of the Forbidden City. Trace out the two red 
lines which run north from Coal Hill, each having the 
number 78 at its end outside the plan of the Tartar City. 
Our next field of vision will be the territory between those 
lines. 


292 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


78 . Mei-shan (Coal Hill) within the Imperial City, 
north to Drum and Bell Towers—Ancestral 
Temples in Foreground, Pekin. 

Coal Hill is the most elevated point in Pekin; it affords 
the best panoramic outlook. We are looking toward the 
north. Here again you learn that the general aspect 
changes little; the city spreads away over the same level 
plain; the street in the distance is broad; the houses are 
low and somewhat scattered, and the whole field of view 
is thickly interspersed with trees. The area of the city is 
not densely populated, as at Canton and many other cities 
in China; in the Chinese portion there are large areas al¬ 
most without buildings except a few temples. The slopes 
of Coal Hill are quite heavily wooded; the higher points 
contain pavilions or summer-houses, and at the time of 
our visit the largest of these on the highest point was occu¬ 
pied by French soldiers. There are not many objects of 
special interest in this northern section of the city. Di¬ 
rectly north, a little over a mile distant, you see what ap¬ 
pears to be a huge gate rising from the street to a great 
height. It is known as the Drum-tower, because it con¬ 
tains a colossal drum which is beaten in times of alarm, 
and is also used to signalize the night watches. Two hun¬ 
dred yards beyond the Drum-tower is another somewhat 
similar structure called the Bell-tower, because it contains 
one of five great bells cast by Emperor Yung Lo in the 
early part of the fifteeenth century. These bells are said 
to weigh sixty tons each. The Chinaman’s fondness for 
big things is not confined to great walls; he takes to big 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


293 


drums and big bells, and sometimes to very big “ josses,” 
in material concerns; but, worse than that, I fear he does 
not always scruple on big diplomatic fibs, nor is his com¬ 
mercial code always free from big “ squeezes ”; yet in this 
respect what nation shall “ cast the first stone ” ? The 
northern wall of the Imperial City lies one-half mile north 
of us, but it can scarcely be identified among the trees. 
The Mei-shan, or Coal Hill, on which we stand is also sur¬ 
rounded by a wall which we see among the trees at the 
foot of the hill. We may see among the trees an orna¬ 
mental gateway, and near it a passage through the wall 
leading to those rather pretentious structures beyond. 
That large building with its several adjuncts is an ances¬ 
tral hall. You have not forgotten the beautiful memorial 
hall of the Chun-Ka-Chie family at Canton. This is an¬ 
other of those sacred ancestral shrines, where family rec¬ 
ords are kept and where memorial tablets are erected, as 
was explained to you when we stood before the one at 
Canton. There are many beautiful architectural features 
to this family temple; there are richly carved marble rails 
and large figures of animals and birds in bronze. Says Du 
Bose, speaking of these ancestral halls: “ Here sacrifices 
are made, incense is burned and prayers are offered. 
The following is the prayer of an emperor of the Ming 
dynasty to his ancestors : 

“ ‘ I think of you, my sovereign ancestors, whose glori¬ 
ous souls are in heaven. As from an overflowing foun¬ 
tain run the happy streams, such is the connection between 
you and your descendants. I, a distant descendant, hav- 


294 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

ing received the appointment from heaven, look back and 
offer this bright sacrifice to you, the honored ones from 
age to age, for hundreds and thousands and myriads of 
years. Now ye front us, O spirits, and now ye pass by 
us, ascending and descending unrestricted by conditions of 
space. Your souls are in heaven; your tablets are in that 
department. For myriads of years will your descendants 
think of you with filial thoughts unwearied.’ ” 

Behind us lies the Palace, and for our last panorama 
of Pekin let us look over the urban “ Holy of Holies,” or 
the Palace area. Turn again to the map and trace the two 
red lines which bound our field of vision, starting from 
Coal Hill and extending over the Forbidden City and the 
Chinese City. The number 79 is given at the beginning 
and ends of these lines. 

79. Looking South over the Palaces of the Forbidden 
City, from Mei-shan (Coal Hill), Pekin. 

The Shrines of Mecca are not kept more fanatically 
exclusive toward “ Christian dogs ” than is this Forbid¬ 
den City at our feet toward all the world save the Im¬ 
perial coterie. 

In all Oriental countries, the policing of cities is very 
imperfectly done, hence the people learn to shut them¬ 
selves in and the streets are very uninteresting. Until 
about one hundred and fifty years ago the Forbidden City 
was not entirely closed to visitors. Then a wretch took 
advantage of his privileges and tried to assassinate the 
Emperor. From that day to this, not only this city, but all 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 295 

imperial places are closed to spectators. The Chinaman 
is naturally generous and sociable. It is his environment 
and lack of governing ability which has resulted in his 
present spirit of exclusiveness. The Great Wall was built 
to keep out nomadic horsemen who troubled their borders. 
Walls of cities were built, as they say, to make thieving 
less easy and the capture of thieves more easy. Walls 
are built in front of public offices and homes to keep out 
evil spirits rather than to prevent people from looking in. 
The Chinaman is more afraid of wandering ghosts than 
any man alive. Spirits, to him, are everywhere present 
and must be kept out if possible. Doubtless if we knew 
the reason for the erection of many buildings in the “ Sa¬ 
cred Enclosure ” it could be traced to superstition. 

Let us gaze for a little on this debarred city which the 
highest foreign dignitaries have not been permitted to 
enter for centuries. The entire palace enclosure is sur¬ 
rounded by a massive wall faced with tile glazed with im¬ 
perial yellow. The wall is flanked by a broad moat, which 
is also walled with solid masonry. Three streets extend 
across the grounds; three halls, in line north and south, 
embrace the main buildings; three and nine are sacred 
numbers; therefore you must expect everything in threes 
or nines. Before each of the three principal halls are 
threefold gates. The gate in the wall around the hill on 
which we stand is triple; the large gateway before you, 
which is the northern gateway of the Palace, is also tri¬ 
ple. Seven is the Jewish lucky number, but the Chinese 
fates (feng-shui) know no numbers but three and the 


296 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

multiples thereof. It is their numerical sacred trinity. 
This vast space appropriated to private palaces for the 
Emperor and the Empress contains a lake, gardens and 
pavilions; it has a fine temple dedicated to the Imperial 
ancestors. We see countless adjunct structures in all parts 
of the ground. It would be impossible to learn all the 
different uses to which they are put. Many are occupied 
by eunuchs, of whom there are about two thousand in the 
palace inclosure. There are concubines, I suppose, and 
guards and bannerman, and servants of many kinds, and 
court flunkies innumerable, all requiring quarters within 
the grounds. 

One of the great mistakes made by this dynasty was in 
subsidizing all the soldiers who helped establish the throne 
two hundred and fifty years ago, as well as their descend¬ 
ants. Hence these Manchus expect to be carried on the 
shoulders of the Emperor, and when their stipends grow 
small, as naturally they must in the course of time, they 
make up the deficiency by stealing public funds. There is 
no court in the world where there are so many loafers and 
useless flunkies who still have a sort of right to be there. 
The Empress Dowager is the keenest monarch who has 
governed China for many years, but even she dares not 
weed out the worthless trash in the palace. 

Up to the present time the public has not been ad¬ 
mitted even to the ground on which we stand. Friends 
who had previously visited Pekin advised me to endeavor 
to gain the top of this hill by stealth, as the only way of 
obtaining a panoramic view of the Forbidden City; but 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 297 

stealth is uncalled for when European troops cook their 
rations in the pavilion we occupy. It is another circum¬ 
stance which admits the old adage about the “ ill wind.” 
The exigencies of war, therefore, have gained for us, not 
only a panorama of the forbidden ground, but also of the 
sanctum sanctorum itself, to which I will introduce you 
after we walk around to the opposite approach of the sa¬ 
cred enclosure. 

Do not forget that we are here looking directly toward 
the Chien Gate, which is now over a mile and a half south 
of us. We will leave the Mei-shan, turn to the left and 
pass outside the west wall of the Imperial City, and then 
southward till we reach Legation Street, and then swing¬ 
ing to the right on a line with the Chien Gate, we face 
north and enter the gate of the Imperial City and con¬ 
tinue our way northward over a flagged highway and 
through another massive gateway until we reach a third 
prodigious gate; this we ascend and from its lofty second 
story we look north toward the gate which opens into the 
Forbidden City. On the map we see by the red lines con¬ 
nected with the number 80 that we are to look north from 
the southern wall of the Imperial City. 

80 . Count Von Waldersee Escorted by Officers of Al¬ 
lied Armies through Z,ines of U. S. Infantry, 
toward Sacred Gate, Pekin. 

Now we are on the southern side of the palace area 
looking toward Coal Hill, which is hidden behind the gate. 
Before us we see the German Field Marshal, Count von 


298 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

Waldersee, passing through the Imperial City on an offi¬ 
cial tour. At the same time we are able to get a good 
view of the entrance to the Palace or Forbidden City. 

The gate on which we stand is similar to the one on the 
opposite side of this grand court, except that it has no 
flanking wall and towers such as those we see. There is 
a vast room just behind us stored with immense quanti¬ 
ties of swords, bows and arrows and other war material. 
The whole court at our feet is paved with brick, and the 
central drive or promenade is flagged with heavy stone, 
and this flagging and paving extends from the Chien Gate 
to and within the Palace area, a distance of three-fourths 
of a mile. Notice again the triplicate form of this en¬ 
trance. You will remember that at the Chien Gate we 
stood on the spot where the gallant Captain Reilly fell. I 
then told you that the guns of his battery were trained 
on the sacred city and the gates leading thereto, in order 
to clear the way for the advance of the troops. If you 
look carefully you will discover traces of shells from 
Reilly’s guns—grim mementoes for the Empress when 
she returns to the Palace; for at that time she was fleeing 
southward toward Paoting-Fu. 

After the occupation of the city by the Allies, the Amer¬ 
ican and Japanese troops were placed in charge of the 
Palace grounds. A portion of the Ninth Infantry were 
encamped within this court. At this time you see them 
lined along both sides of this Imperial highway as a mark 
of military respect to the Field Marshal. You see three 
mounted officers between a guard on white horses and the 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 299 

escort following. The central figure, partially hidden by 
the German flag at the head of the escort, in the rear of 
the three mounted officers, is the Field Marshal. He 
passes through and leaves the court by a gate to the left. 
His escort embraces officers from the different armies. 
The American Sixth Cavalry lines the way between the 
gate on which we stand and the next gate behind us to¬ 
ward the Chien-men, and representatives of troops from 
other nations occupy positions along the route followed. 

Before we can enter yonder sacred portal we must ob¬ 
tain a permit from General Chaffee or General Yamaguchi 
who at the time are in command of the American and Jap¬ 
anese forces. Very naturally after a place so important 
as this is thrown open for the first time in history, there 
is an irrepressible desire to peer within; restriction is nec¬ 
essary and permits are required. After some delay these 
are received; then a further delay is entailed because one 
must wait until permits have been granted to a number, 
when an officer is detailed to accompany the party. Pre¬ 
vious arrangements have been made with the native care¬ 
takers of the Palace, who also must accompany us to see 
that nothing is taken or disturbed. Notwithstanding this 
precaution and vigilance nearly all portable articles in the 
buildings have disappeared. 

We will descend and enter at that middle door, where 
we find a number of well-dressed court guards, who will 
follow us at every turn. Within the court beyond we shall 
pass to the west side and look toward the northeast. See 
red lines on the map connected with the number 81. 


3 °° 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


81. Within the Forbidden City and Home of the Em¬ 
press Dowager—Harmony Gate from Elevated 
Walk near Canal, Pekin . 

We are at last within the Sacred City, where, until 
now, none of all those who have visited Pekin have ever 
been; within grounds from which all the foreign minis¬ 
ters and high functionaries of state have been excluded. 
And now that we are within, what are we to see to reward 
a mysterious exclusion for all these centuries? The ex¬ 
pression of all who have passed through these royal en¬ 
closures is that of disappointment. Royal domiciles the 
world over have taught us to expect to find therein a 
lavish expenditure of wealth in art and architecture, and 
why not expect such things in this venerable arcanum of 
Chinese and Manchurian sovereigns? On the other hand, 
in all that we have thus far seen of China we have not 
been encouraged to expect great things, except, probably, 
in walls. Decay and dilapidation have characterized all 
places under native rule from Canton to the Capital, and 
why should we expect it to be otherwise here? We will 
not find it otherwise. Let us venture to look around. 
We are in the first court and within the great South Gate 
of the Forbidden City; we have turned a little off to the 
left and ascended for a short distance an inclined cause¬ 
way leading to side buildings. We look diagonally across 
the court toward an interior gate, called “ Tai-ha-men.” 
Already since leaving the Chien-men we have passed 
through four stupendous gates. What an egregious fad 
in gates and walls! And how little whims and fancies 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


301 


develop, in time, into monstrous follies! But to the Chi¬ 
nese taste these gates are things of beauty. The most we 
see here is roof. It is thus over the country; buildings are 
mostly roof; and one roof is not enough; there are gener¬ 
ally two, and often many attachments. Everything in 
China has an uncared-for appearance. Look at the weeds 
and grass growing up from the pavements; that canal is 
without water; and look at the shrubs growing from the 
chinks in the walls. There is grass and wild herbage 
enough about this court to graze a flock of goats; neither 
is this owing to the absence of the royal occupants; it is 
characteristic of the palace grounds, and it is characteris¬ 
tic of China. Those massive rails before the gate and 
around it and along the canal near us are elaborately sculp¬ 
tured in white marble; but when once finished they are 
left for time and neglect to write their traceries upon them. 
The yellow glazed tiles of the roofs and the dark green 
ornamental painting on the interior wooden work of the 
gate afford an agreeable contrast to the colorless city out¬ 
side. Those pillars of the gate are of wood, as is the en¬ 
tire inner structure. The two bronze lions guarding the 
approach are works of art, at least of the Chinese order, 
and were probably cast during the Ming reign when the 
bronze age was in its zenith. 

We have made a cursory survey of all within our view 
except the solitary living figure, a half-grown lad, who, I 
scarcely need say, is not a member of the royal household 
left behind, but my own solemn-visaged, though very serv¬ 
iceable native boy. He was rather averse to standing be- 


302 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


fore the camera, but did not see his way to escape decently, 
being in my employ. This accounts partially for his de¬ 
mure countenance, although in his general state of mind 
he was cross, but honest. This is a Christian boy fur¬ 
nished to me by missionaries. They said his father was 
chased away by the Boxers and had not been heard of 
since. T ( he family were reduced to poverty and the boy 
was manfully trying to do what he could to support them. 
He took care of the room which I occupied for a month, 
sometimes acting as my porter. He had more honor than 
the average Chinaman. On one occasion I hinted that 
something had disappeared from my room; this touched 
his pride so painfully that he left me for twenty-four 
hours, but returned at the end of that time after wages 
due him and making me to understand that “ he no stealee 
boy.” We thereupon became reconciled until another day 
when we had a serio-comical falling out because I found 
him wiping my dishes—I should not say dishes; dishes is 
too plural for a plate and a cup—with his coat-tail. The 
culmination, however, was a protest with no serious re¬ 
sults ; we became reconciled again, and I furnished a dish¬ 
cloth and we parted friends. 

When we pass up that balustered approach to the gate 
we shall tread upon dragons sculptured in bold relief in 
the pavement blocks of marble. Passing through and en¬ 
tering another smaller court, on the farther side of which 
stands one of the royal halls, we turn to the right and look 
westward along its front. See map. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


303 


82» Architectural Ideas of the Imperial Chinese — 
Building in Second Court of the Forbidden City, 
Pekin . 

Is not this disappointing? Certainly it is of exceeding 
interest; it is within the Forbidden City. That alone 
would give great interest to the scene, but it is one of the 
main buildings of the palace. That fact adds further to 
its interest, yet architecturally it is disappointing and far 
from being palatial in appearance. There is little of the 
imposing grandeur we expect to find surrounding royalty. 
We would not, of course, expect to find it comparable with 
imperial homes in European countries; but it does not 
compare with many palaces in other Oriental countries, 
nor other structures even in China, such as the Fukien 
Guild Hall at Ningpo, or the Ancestral Hall at Canton. 

There is nothing to distinguish the building from any 
old temple, or tea-house, or Yamen, or private home of a 
mandarin; and we should scarcely expect anything differ¬ 
ent when we recollect that the Chinese are a people of a 
single idea—one idea in everything; more than one would 
denote progress, a lack of which is the distinguishing trait 
of the people—one idea in art—and one in architecture. 
All buildings are on the same plan; a temple may be 
turned into a palace and vice versa, which is often done. 
Private houses, pavilions, shops, palaces, pai-lau, temples 
and even gateways embody but one architectural idea; 
hence in this sacred and long secluded sanctum of the im¬ 
perial family you see only the same old rickety heaps of 


3°4 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


brick and tile. The Chinaman aims at perpetuity rather 
than progress, and who can say he has not succeeded? 
He and Time are old friends, and he regards progress as 
an upstart. We fail to find anything out of the usual in 
the buildings; we see some carved tablets on the pillars; 
we see weather-worn awnings over the doors. The roof 
tiling is of a superior quality. The court flagging is out 
of repair; but the bronze figures are beautiful; also the 
bronze cisterns and the urns or altars, all of which we are 
naturally disposed to credit to the bronze age of the 
Mings. Bronzes are cast at the present time, but it is 
unreasonable to suppose that inferior modern bronzes 
would be found in such a place. 

To a certain extent we may say the Chinese ideas of 
architecture result more or less from their religious ideas. 
Spirits prevail everywhere and houses must be arranged 
so as to make it difficult for them to enter. As spirits go 
in a straight line, it is not wise to have buildings higher 
than the city wall, otherwise you might have undesirable 
visitants. So all buildings are one story. The mythical 
creatures in bronze or marble placed out by the entrance 
are supposed to have a real influence in keeping out evil 
spirits and preserving the peace of the household. Geo- 
mancers are a necessary part of the palace officials, and 
they keep the imperial household well stirred up lest the 
feng-shai should not be right. They also reap a silver 
harvest in the process. 

That object resembling the common form of the Ameri- 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


305 


can heating stove is the altar. On this incense and offer¬ 
ings are burned to the so-called divinities, or heroes who 
are liable to become divinities in time; but hero worship 
and pantheism in China is an infinity of idiocy more piti¬ 
able than interesting, and we pass it by and introduce you 
to a trio of celestial court flunkies. Those fellows are not 
simply posing for a picture, they are keeping a sharp sur¬ 
veillance over every movement of the photographer. I 
necessarily fell behind the party in making these stereo¬ 
graphs, and these three linger to watch my movements in 
case I might carry off that cistern or pocket those birds. 
By their style of dress we see that two of them are some¬ 
what important; those are caps of consequence; the 
feather behind is particularly consequential; besides, they 
are portly men, and obesity in this country usually keeps 
pace with functionary importance. Mandarins are gen¬ 
erally fat men. 

There is a Western clock at the farther end of the porch. 
It is not going, and one wonders whether it stopped at the 
time the imperial household fled. 

We enter the building and see considerable furniture 
of fine workmanship, and some art treasures and bric-a- 
brac not easily moved, most movable belongings having 
been looted or carried away in the hegira. We leave this 
hall on the opposite side, and, passing through another 
gate, and entering a third court, we take a similar position 
before another hall. See map. 


306 china through the stereoscope. 

83, Home of the World’s Most Remarkable Ruler— 
Entrance of the Palace Occupied by China’s 
Famous Empress Dowager, Forbidden City, 
Pekin . 

Were it not for the different ornamental objects of art 
and worship, you would scarcely know we are before an¬ 
other building and in another court, the similarity in the 
appearance of structures is so great; and yet this is the 
private room of the Empress. On the pillars in the porch 
there are the same carved tablets and similar faded and 
weather-worn awnings, but the bronze articles of decora¬ 
tion are of a higher order. They are for the gaze of the 
imperial eyes and are of finer mold. T.he incense burn¬ 
ers are more delicate and slender and more richly deco¬ 
rated; the marble bases on which they stand are covered 
with six or seven patterns of ornamentation. The base 
and pedestal of the dragon are beautifully ornate in design 
and workmanship. The dragon himself, as though con¬ 
scious of posing before royalty, looks his prettiest, giving 
the most gracious and graceful curves to his wonted con¬ 
tortions; his hair is stylishly set up in fluffy tufts ; his 
mustache has a dainty twirl, and while his mouth lacks the 
curves of Cupid’s bow, he probably knows that at times, in 
art, the most hideous is the most beautiful. 

Even in this court of the apartments of the Empress, 
we see weeds intruding, other than widow’s weeds; we 
see also cedar trees which are well-nigh sacred in China 
as in many Eastern countries; they are especially the 
trees of the cemeteries. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE, 


307 


The watchmen are still upon our tracks; two are those 
who were with us in the last court. One of the two, at¬ 
tired in dark silk garments, has probably gone to skirmish 
the advance members of our party, while another takes his 
place to complete the indispensable lucky number. There 
is something almost pathetic about the shorn authority of 
these palace guardians. Never before have they seen 
even the highest of their kindred, outside the royal family 
within these walls; now soldiers, civilians, photographers 
and all sorts of “foreign devils” are tramping through and 
desecrating the sacred grounds. What, then, must be the 
feelings of the Empress and the Emperor and Prince 
Tuan and other members whose mighty highness has been 
so long unapproachable and invisible, to see the despised 
Westerner in full control and peering into all the sacred 
nooks of their much-walled and inviolable asylum ? 
Surely they must think hereafter, if they have not thought 
heretofore, that, in colloquial parlance, there are others. 
They have been punished and humiliated before, but they 
soon regained “ face,” i. e., prestige. To dislodge a 
Chinese idea is a great undertaking. 

While we are before the apartments of the Empress I 
should tell you that only a small portion of her time is 
spent here. Her summers are spent at the Summer Palace 
among the western hills, thirteen miles from Pekin, which 
we shall visit later, and her favorite retreat within the city 
is a private palace, near the lake in the Imperial City, one- 
half mile west of the Forbidden City. That palace was oc¬ 
cupied by Field Marshal Count von Waldersee while the 


308 china through the stereoscope. 

allied armies were in the capital and has since been burned 
down. 

We will pass through the Hall of the Empress, which 
scarcely contains anything worthy of a stereograph, even 
if the smallness of the rooms and the poor illumination did 
not prevent photographic operations; then we enter an¬ 
other building called the Tai-ho-tien, or “ Hall of Highest 
Peace,” which is apparently the most imposing structure 
in the Forbidden City. It is over a hundred feet in height 
and elevated on a terrace twenty feet above the ground. 
It is ascended by successive marble steps ornamented with 
magnificent balustrades in richly sculptured marble. The 
main hall is two hundred feet in length by ninety feet in 
width and contains seventy-two pillars; in the center of 
this is the Dragon T.hrone. 

84 . Sacred to the “Son of Heaven”—Grand Throne 
in the Emperor’s Palace, Forbidden City, Pekin. 

We stand before the Dragon Throne. This is the finest 
and most important hall in the Palace. It is surely the 
chef-d'oeuvre of Chinese artisans, architects and sculptors. 
Notice the deeply paneled ceiling and the vast elaboration 
of carving on everything. The screen behind the mon¬ 
arch’s seat of state is an intricate lace-work in wood. The 
dragon, of course, holds the first place, indeed all the 
places, in ornamental designs. The throne itself is a capa¬ 
cious and massive affair carved in black wood. The floor 
of this great hall is marble; the floor of the dais on which 
the royal chair stands is exquisitely inlaid. The incense 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


3°9 


urns and figures are of bronze; the ascent to the throne is 
by three steps. There is no scarcity of fine moral senti¬ 
ments inscribed on tablets and walls; that motto in large 
characters over the throne is, as nearly as translatable into 
English, “ Purity and Righteousness/’ and on the vertical 
tablet at the right hand is, “ The first step in adjusting the 
universe is to keep constantly in mind the shaping of one’s 
own character.” As to whether there is any palpable mis¬ 
fit about any of these fine ethical sentiments surrounding 
the throne of the Chinese Empire, there may be diversity 
of opinion. The other inscriptions are too incomplete or 
indistinct for translation. Williams says in his “ Middle 
Kingdom ” : “ Here the Emperor holds his levees on New 
Year’s Day, his birthdays, and other state occasions; a 
cortege of about fifty household courtiers stand near him, 
while those of inferior dignity and rank stand in the court 
below in regular grades, and, when called upon, fall pros¬ 
trate as they all make the fixed obeisances. It is in this 
hall that Titsingh and Van Braam were banqueted by 
Kienlung, January 20, 1795, of which interesting cere¬ 
mony the Dutch Ambassador gives an account and since 
which event no European has entered the building,” until, 
we may now add, the allied armies of Europe and America 
entered it, in 1900. 

T.here is another hall where the Emperor comes to ex¬ 
amine written prayers to be offered at the state worship. 
There is another where the highest degrees for literary 
merit are awarded every three years. And beyond this 
stands the “ Palace of Earth’s Repose,” or, stripped of 


310 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

metaphor, the Imperial Harem. Another building far¬ 
ther north and near the northern gate is called the “ Hall 
of Intense Thought,” where offerings are made to Con¬ 
fucius and other sages. There is also the Imperial Li¬ 
brary and the Ancestral Hall, where the members of the 
royal family offer homage to their departed ancestors. 
There are other buildings too numerous to mention; but 
the number of persons living within these sacred walls is 
not large and nearly all are of the line of the alien con¬ 
querors. How many times servile subordinates have 
stood in the court near where we stand and made the nine 
regulation obeisances before the “ Son of Heaven,” seated 
on this throne; and we come and go and neither make 
obeisances nor “ Chin, chin ” to anybody! How preten¬ 
tious and absurd kingcraft appears to democracy! We 
have seen enough to convince us that while certain things 
show infinite labor and some skill, the general appearance 
and condition of this place, show Tsz’ Kin Ching, or 
“ Carnation Prohibited City ” to be a parody of high- 
sounding names. 

We leave the palace at the northern gate, near the foot 
of the Mei-shan. We then turn to the left and stop to in¬ 
spect a Pekinese cart. Our position and field of vision is 
given on the map by the red lines, marked 85, which start 
near the northwestern part of the Forbidden City and 
extend slightly northeast. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 311 

85. Typical Springless, Seatless, Chinese Coach- 
looking toward Coal Hill, in Imperial City, 
Pekin . 

There is scarcely an illustrated work on China which 
does not give a picture of this celebrated Pekinese vehicle. 
It is entitled to a world-wide celebrity for its negative 
and infernal qualities; there is nothing which shows the 
sluggish inaptitude and inadaptability of the Chinese mind 
better than a Pekinese cart. Its evolution covers mil¬ 
lenniums, and yet its unaltered primordial capacity for in¬ 
flicting torture on the traveller cannot be imagined. Be¬ 
fore coming to Pekin a friend warned me against these 
carts, and now I realize he was a true friend; but his warn¬ 
ing did not qualify my anticipation—to know, a person 
must ride in one. I had but a single experience—I rode a 
mile only, and yet I know. They do not look different 
from other carts, but they are different. I imagine that 
the passing of the Car of Juggernaut over one’s body 
would produce a wooing sensation as compared to the jolt¬ 
ing of a Pekinese cart. They are not only without springs, 
the axle and wheels are very heavy, the latter filled with 
bolts to give strength; the tire is of heavy iron and its 
outer surface, in nearly all carts, is filled with knobs or 
bolt-heads an inch high and an inch apart, though the cart 
before us lacks the customary knobs on the tire. The 
heavy tire protects the felloe, and the knobs are intended 
to protect the tire. The solid upper structure is bolted 
unyieldingly to the axle. There is no seat. Besides all 
this there is an inherent mysterious rigidity about the axle 


312 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

which I have never been able to understand. The interior 
is very narrow and very low, and the only entrance is at 
the front. I wished to visit the Summer Palace out on 
the western hills thirteen miles distant. The missionaries 
told me I must take a cart; and I have not yet quite for¬ 
given their poor but well-meant advice. I engaged the 
cart, placed my camera and box and other paraphernalia 
within. There was no seat, and I secured an empty box 
as a substitute. I perched on this and we were off. Chi¬ 
nese horses are small, but they are somewhat lively, at 
least it seemed so to me on this occasion. I expected to 
find the horses as slow and plodding as the people, and 
that it would be a leisurely walk of thirteen miles. The 
horse at once struck an impetuous gate; the road was of 
course the worst possible. My apparatus was soon flying 
about in the most reckless fashion ; my hands were both 
occupied in holding fast to my extemporized seat, using 
my elbows as springs; ruts and bottomless mud-holes are 
plentiful, but the one gait is maintained, and I bumped 
from side to side; my hat went off and scampered with 
the apparatus. I was at once convinced it was to be the 
roughest locomotion I had ever tried, and I have tried 
nearly everything. Others had travelled in that way, even 
some missionary ladies had preceded me to the Summer 
Palace in a similar cart, and both my pluck and endurance 
were at stake. I hoped for the road to become better, but 
it became worse. I feared the destruction of my camera 
and plates, yet I could not quit my hold. The jolting was 
excruciating; it was not the mere possibility of dislocation 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 313 

of joints: I would not mind that; it was the more serious 
matter of telescoping the vertebrae. I pitched up and 
down and from side to side. With grim clutch I sup¬ 
ported this churning and pounding for something over a 
mile, when I quite lost my temper; I did not swear, but 
was verilv in a profane mood. I kicked the driver, 
who sat over the cross-bar in front as a signal to 
stop. This he did, when in sheer desperation I re¬ 
moved my portables, ordered the cart to return, en¬ 
gaged two street coolies to accompany me, and made the 
journey and return, twenty-six miles, on foot. The 
agonies of this, my first and last attempt, to exploit a 
Pekinese cart would have been appreciably diminished 
had I known the proper way of adjusting one’s person to 
the exigencies of the vehicle. No seat is ever used, but 
instead mattresses and cushions are placed on the bottom 
and occupants recline and do not attempt to sit erect; but 
even with the body thus disposed, the thrashing and 
pounding to which one is subjected is but slightly modi¬ 
fied. In a single day between sunrise and sunset I have 
made one hundred and seventeen miles in a springless, 
Russian post-wagon with relays of horses; but that was 
as nothing compared with a few miles in a Pekinese cart. 
The Chinese have devised many unique modes of torture, 
but none of them show so successful an application of 
means to an end as this homicidal cart. There is another 
style of cart used in the capital, but it is only used by 
royalty. In the royal cart the wheel is placed behind and 
the cloth trimmings are all in imperial yellow. 


3 M CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

Do you recognize the land-mark which has been several 
times pointed out from our former positions ? I mean the 
Mei-shan, or Prospect Hill, or the Coal Hill or Mountain, 
for it is known by all these names. Now we are quite 
near and can see distinctly some of the pavilions on the 
different points of elevation. That is a French soldier 
peering at us on the right. 

Have you noticed the strange gate-like structures be¬ 
tween us and the hill? We will walk over for a nearer 
view of the latter. On the map this new position is given 
by the red lines connected with the number 86 just north 
of the Forbidden City. 

86 . Curious Chinese Architecture—Typical Gateway 
over a Street in the Imperial City, Pekin. 

These curious structures, resembling gateways, are 
called pai-lau, and may be found scattered over the Em¬ 
pire. They are erected to commemorate distinguished 
men, or by officers in memory of their parents. Permis¬ 
sion to erect a pai-lau must be obtained from the Emperor, 
and such permission is always looked upon as a high 
mark of honor. They are sometimes put up in honor of 
women who have been noted for purity and filial devo¬ 
tion, and also in honor of widows who have declined a 
second marriage. Sometimes men erect ante-mortem pai- 
lau to themselves. They have frequently been called 
triumphal arches, but this is altogether a misnomer, for 
where there have been no triumphs surely there can be no 
triumphal arches; besides, they are never in the form of 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 315 

an arch. They are sometimes constructed of stone, but 
more generally of wood, and often elaborately carved. 
There is sometimes a massive profusion of bracket work 
below a heavy protecting roof of tiling, indeed, one of the 
strangest peculiarities of Chinese architecture is an ex¬ 
aggerated system of complex bracket work, and this may 
generally be seen in the pai-lau. These commemoration 
portals are usually placed in streets before temples and 
government offices; sometimes, however, ordinary gate¬ 
ways placed at the ends of streets are mistaken for honor¬ 
ary portals. I suppose you have observed the triplicate 
form of the pai-lau—any number outside of three and its 
multiples, you will remember, is as fatal as the ill-omened 
thirteen. Here we have a perspective of three portals all 
lying between the Forbidden City and the Mei-shan. We 
erect statues and tablets to commemorate persons of dis¬ 
tinction; the Chinese erect pai-lau and place a tablet 
thereon, their statues being chiefly confined to the tem¬ 
ples. You see the tablets on these, the first being by a 
free translation, “ Blessing for the People,” and the one 
on the second pai-lau, “ A Bright Sky and Clear Mirror,” 
whatever that may mean. From these mottoes it is evi¬ 
dent they are public memorials. 

The Great Lama Temple is one of the places visited by 
all travellers to Pekin. We must not fail to make at least 
a brief survey. Its location is given by the number 20 in 
black in the northeast part of the Tartar City. We shall 
stand in the court and look first toward the northeast, as 
the red lines connected with the number 87 show. 


316 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


£ 7 . In the Court of the Great Lama Temple—showing 
Lama Priest Turning Prayer-wheel, Pekin . 

You may remember our second position in Pekin when 
we looked from the Ha-ta Gate due north, along what is 
now called Von Ketteler Street. We are now at the ex¬ 
treme northern end of that street, by the northern wall of 
the Tartar City, within the court of the chief temple of 
the Lamas. It is called by the natives the Yung-ho Kung, 
or Lamasery of Eternal Peace. The formation of the 
temple, like all Chinese buildings, is a series of courts 
surrounded by low, tile-roofed structures on every side; 
so that it is impossible to make a photographic view to 
show more than one side, or a section of one of these 
courts. In the center of this court is a pavilion at which 
a number of priests are whiling away their leisure, and 
that is to say, their lives; for their life-time and leisure 
signify about the same thing. This gives you an idea of 
the character of the many connected edifices all of one 
style, chiefly roof as before mentioned; there is, however, 
one building much higher than the rest. It contains a 
colossal wooden statue of Maitriya, the coming Buddha. 
Notwithstanding its mean appearance, this temple is con¬ 
sidered to be one of the most complete in all its arrange¬ 
ments for study, living and worship in the country. I 
suppose when 1 say it is considered to be the most com¬ 
plete, I should explain that it is thus considered by the 
natives. My own opinion is that it is one of the most 
dirty, dingy, smoky, ramshackle establishments in the 
whole world and filled with one thousand five hundred 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE, 317 

Mongolian and Tibetan ignorant fanatics, called priests. 
Soon I shall present to you a group of these priests, and if 
you are somewhat of a physiognomist, I will submit 
whether my apparently uncharitable appellation be un¬ 
just. First, though, we should observe the priests before 
us. T,he priest nearest us assumed that dramatic pose of 
his own accord; I did not prevent him, and am now glad 
I did not, as it helps my definition of the group you are to 
see later. Three sit by the wall of the pavilion, and another 
turns a praying-machine; he likewise strengthens my un¬ 
kind arraignment of the yellow-robed conclave which 
dwell here. The praying-machine should be explained. 
We claim to lead the world in labor-saving machinery, 
and yet we have not perfected a genuine praying-machine. 
That we have sometimes soporific approximations we all 
know, but no bona fide mills. You see a priest couchant 
by that small upright frame with the typical Chinese roof 
over it; he is turning a prayer-mill by a short stick held 
in his hand and attached to a crank at the base of a ver¬ 
tical cylinder or box. The prayer is written on paper and 
attached to the box, and every time it revolves the writing 
is prayed. In this way a skillful operator can turn out a 
great many prayers in the course of the day. Sometimes 
the crank is attached to a water-wheel, and sometimes to 
a rude wind-mill, in which cases the devotee can retire 
while the mill prays on through the night. A Lama who 
establishes one of these plants may, with a stiff breeze 
blowing, consign himself to the arms of Morpheus, and in 
the morning find himself the very ne plus ultra of holi- 


3 18 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

ness. These priests ought to be good men, as both the 
elements of the omnipotent “ Feng-shui ” are utilized to 
that end (the Chinese fates, called Feng-shui, reside in 
wind and water). In the native land of the Lamas the 
praying-machine is universal. At the door of every house 
the family machine stands, and every one who enters is 
supposed to give it a twist for the benefit of the family. 
By every stream that affords water-power one may no¬ 
tice a small building which would ordinarily be taken for 
a water-mill, but which in reality is a prayer-mill, where 
every turn of the wheel is sending to Heaven the stereo¬ 
typed invocation : “ Om Ma-ni Pi-mi Horn ”—O, the 

jewel in the Lotus, Amen! 

But I promised to present to you a group of these men 
sanctified by machinery. We need only turn around a 
short distance to our right. 

88 . Tama Priests at the Tnng-ho Rung, the Great 
Tama Temple, Pekin . 

These are Lama priests who gathered around us while 
we were looking at the prayer-wheel. In ordinary times 
it would be impossible to induce them to stand to be pho¬ 
tographed, but the allied armies hold the city, and like all 
Chinamen they are more meek than they are wont to be; 
they are afraid to refuse a foreigner’s request; yet I do 
not like to practice duress on men of cloth, even yellow 
cloth, so I offer them money and they hesitatingly comply. 
They are of all ages, some venerable in the service, and 
some mere boys preparing for the priesthood. They 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 319 

spend their time in idleness or in studying the doctrines 
of Buddha. The head of the Lamasery is called a Gegen, 
who is considered a living Buddha. Their studies em¬ 
brace metaphysics, ascetic duties, astrology, medicine and 
the arts of laziness. Their regular devotions are per¬ 
formed in the different courts, and when great numbers 
are engaged at the same time in their chants and mill- 
prayers the effect is very curious, especially if the mills 
should not be well lubricated, and a universal creaking 
mingles in the chant. 

The Gegen is usually a Tibetan, as are many of the 
members. Of course this temple is a monastery as well 
as a temple. Buddhism in northern Asia is called Sha¬ 
manism, from the Chinese words Hwang-kiao, which sig¬ 
nify yellow sect, because the Buddhistic order of priests 
the world over wear yellow robes. The pontiff of Sha- 
manish is the Grand-Lama or Da lai Lama at Lassa. 
Mongolia and Tibet swarm with Lamas. The Lamas 
have a decalogue which is not unlike the Mosaic in many 
points: (1) Do not kill. (2) Do not steal. (3) Do not 
commit fornication. (4) Speak not falsely. (5) Drink 
no wine nor eat flesh. (6) Look not on gay silks or neck¬ 
laces, use no perfumed ointment, and paint not the body. 

(7) Neither sing nor dance, and do no sleight of hand 
tricks or gymnastic acts, and go not to see or hear them. 

(8) Sit not on a high, large couch. (9) Do not eat out of 
time. (10) Do not grasp hold of living images, gold, 
silver, money or any valuable thing. The tenth will be a 
sore test for the average mortal. The great resemblance 


3 2 ° 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


of the ceremonials of the Buddhists and those of the 
Romish Church has led to much discussion as to which 
has copied from the other. The distinguished scholar 
and writer, Abbe Hue, enumerates some of the similari¬ 
ties as follows : “ The cross, the mitre, the dolmatica, the 
cape which the Lamas wear on their journeys, or when 
performing some ceremony out of the temple; the service 
with double choir, the psalmody, the exorcism, the censer 
suspended from five chains, which you can open or close 
at pleasure; the benedictions given by extending the right 
hand over the heads of the faithful; the rosary, ecclesias¬ 
tical celibacy, spiritual retirement, worship of saints; the 
fasts, processions, litanies, and holy water—all these are 
analogies between ourselves and the Buddhists.” Some 
claim that Lamaism and Buddhism have copied their 
ritual from Romanism and others that Romanism has de¬ 
rived its forms from paganism, and there have been those 
who argue that the simulation of the ceremonials of the 
two religions is a machination of the devil; however, cere¬ 
monials are but ceremonials, and we will look again at 
these representatives of Lamaism in their dirty yellow, 
cotton robes, and with their shaven heads. The tenets of 
their religion may be well enough and their rituals well 
enough, but what sort of an exposition of a religious life 
can we expect from men and boys of types like those be¬ 
fore us. I suppose in all religions we must expect great 
discrepancies between tenets and their exemplification. 
The Lama's tenth commandment says: “ Do not grasp 

hold of living images, gold, silver, money or any valuable 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


3 21 


thing,” and some of these priests followed me at least a 
half-mile clamoring all the way for money, and extor¬ 
tionate money; at last I compromised for a Mexican dol¬ 
lar. There is a fine bronze lion beyond the priests with 
a much better countenance than most of these disciples of 
the Da lai Lama at Lassa. 

Speaking of these priests to a well-informed man who 
had lived in Pekin for years, he said: “ This great Lama¬ 
sery was once the residence of Chien Lung, Crown Prince 
in 1770. For that reason it could never be used for pri¬ 
vate purposes again, so it was turned over to the Lamas 
from Mongolia. These Lamas represent a distinct type 
of Buddhist, and are perhaps the most worthless human 
beings on the earth. They are very bigoted, but do not 
understand why or wherefore they are Buddhists. The 
Emperor supplies their needs by a generous subsidy each 
year so as to keep them quiet. The Chinese from time 
immemorial have bought the subjection of the peoples 
who might be called their conquered enemies. Before the 
siege, it was risky business for foreigners to attempt to 
visit the Lamasery, for he might not be allowed to leave 
except by the payment of a large sum of money. These 
priests are filthy in their habits and have no regard for 
the common virtues of truth and decency. The Living 
Buddhas (Gegen) sometimes get into trouble among 
themselves, and one day a Gegen was seen going down 
the street with blood flowing down his face.” 

The T.ibetan Lamas have another large temple outside 
the north gate of the city. 


32 2 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

We are now to leave this extreme northern end of Von 
Ketteler Street, and are about to take a walk of two miles 
south to the Ha-ta Gate. So we will just hand over to 
these Tibetan Lamas that which they are forbidden to 
take or “ grasp hold of,” and then away. At the Ha-ta 
Gate where we obtained our first sight of the city, we will 
follow along the top of the wall eastward until we reach 
the east wall, and this we follow northward for only a 
short distance and we reach the Imperial Observatory. 
Note on the map the red lines and the number 89 near the 
southeastern corner of the Tartar City. 

89 . Imperial Observatory, One of Pekin’s famous 
Sights on the Pastern Wall . 

This famous observatory, called Kwang-hsiang-t’ai by 
the Chinese, is mentioned by all writers on Pekin. It is 
visited by all who desire to see the most interesting things 
about the northern capital. The occupation of the city 
by the Allies during the Boxer war has brought this old 
observatory into still greater fame. If you have expected 
to find a great imposing structure like those you may have 
seen for astronomical purposes in Western countries you 
must be disappointed. It is not the building that is no¬ 
table; in fact you may now see there is no building, only 
a terrace or a tower built into the wall and some fifteen 
feet above it. On the top of this tower are placed the 
astronomical instruments that are considered so wonder¬ 
ful. Here we see them only at a distance, and they ao- 
pear small. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 323 

Soon we shall go nearer where we can study them in 
more detail; but it is not the instruments in themselves 
which we are to consider; we must remember the time at 
which they were made. Those we see on top of the 
tower, a magnificent bronze celestial globe, a sextant, a 
sun-dial and quadrants, were all made in 1674 by order of 
the Emperor Kanghi, under the direction of the Jesuit 
Father, F. Verbiest, who was at that time President of the 
Board of Works. The large azimuth instrument at the 
left was a present from Louis XIV to Emperor Kanghi. 
T.hose instruments were made over two hundred years 
ago, and when we look at them we are astonished no less 
by the scientific knowledge displayed than by the mar¬ 
velous mechanical skill requisite for their construction. 
We are still more astonished when we go to a court below 
at the left hand of the tower and find three instruments 
made altogether by the Chinese, two planispheres and an 
astrolabe, made nearly four hundred years before Kanghi 
gave his imperial order for those we see on the tower. 
You may remember when we started out on our itinerary 
I observed that in China one is constantly in a two-fold 
state of mind, that of admiration and that of disgust. In 
looking at these astronomical instruments made over two 
hundred years ago and some of them over six hundred 
years ago, we are once more stirred with admiration. But 
for the other state of mind we have only to look around us 
here to see the usual neglect and dilapidation, the wall in 
ruins and overgrown with weeds and shrubbery. 

There sits a native before us with his closely shaven 


324 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


pate defying the fiercest sun-rays; and lest you should 
take him to be an astronomer who has wandered a little 
from his instruments to ponder some profound astronom¬ 
ical problem, I will have to tell you he is only my porter 
waiting my next movement which will be to the top of the 
tower for a nearer inspection of the famous instruments. 

go. Magnificent Bronze Astronomical Instruments 
made in 1674, under Emperor Kanghi, Impe¬ 
rial Observatory, Pekin. 

We have come to this point to see partially several in¬ 
struments made by the Jesuits, rather than to see an entire 
single instrument. A portion of one of the many orna¬ 
mental dragons upon which the instruments are mounted 
is very near, so that we are able to inspect details, though 
of course this is only for decoration and does not show 
the delicate mathematical accuracy of the instruments. 
In the court below the instruments made by the Chinese 
themselves, not only antedate these Jesuit-made instru¬ 
ments by over four hundred years, but are much finer in 
scientific and artistic workmanship. A quite full and 
careful description of them by J. Thompson, F.R.C.S., 
will give you a good idea of their merit as well as of their 
exquisite handicraft; so while we look at those of the 
Jesuits we will hear about those of the Chinese: “ Here, 
in addition to the colossal astronomical instrument erected 
by the Jesuit Missionaries in the seventeenth century we 
find two other instruments, in a court below, which the 
Chinese made for themselves, toward the close of the 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 325 

thirteenth century, when the Yuen dynasty was on the 
throne. Possibly some elements of European science 
may have been brought to bear on the construction of 
even these instruments; although the characters and di¬ 
visions engraved on their splendid bronze circles point 
only to the Chinese method of dividing the year, and to 
the state of Chinese astronomy at the time. Yet Marco 
Polo must have been in the north of China at about the 
period of their manufacture; or, at any rate, John de 
Carvino was there, for he, under Pope Clement V, be¬ 
came bishop of Cambalu (Pekin) about 1290 A. D., and 
perhaps with his numerous staff of priests he introduced 
some knowledge of Western art. 

“ Mr. Wylie (than whom there is probably no better au¬ 
thority) was with me when I examined these instruments, 
and is of opinion that they are Chinese and that they were 
produced by Ko-Show-King, one of the most famous as¬ 
tronomers of China. One of them is an astrolabe, fur¬ 
nished beneath with a splendid sun-dial, which has long 
since lost its gnomon. The whole, indeed, consists of 
three astrolabae, one partly movable and partly fixed in 
the plane of the ecliptic; the second turning on a center as 
a meridian circle, and the third the azimuth circle. The 
other instrument is an armillary sphere, supported by 
chained dragons of most beautiful workmanship and de¬ 
sign. This instrument is a marvelous specimen of the 
perfection to which the Chinese must, even then, have 
brought the art of casting in bronze. T.he horizon is in¬ 
scribed with the twelve cyclical characters, into which the 


326 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

Chinese divided the day and night. Outside the ring 
these characters appear again, paired with eight characters 
of the denary cycle, and four names of the eight diagrams 
of the book of changes, denoting the points of the com¬ 
pass, while the inside of the ring bears the names of the 
twelve states into which China, in ancient times, was por¬ 
tioned out. An equatorial circle, a double-ring ecliptic, 
an equinoctial colure, and a double-ring colure, are ad¬ 
justed with the horizon ring. The equator is engraved 
with constellations of unknown antiquity, while the eclip¬ 
tic is marked off into twenty-four equal spaces, corre¬ 
sponding to the divisions of the year. All the circles are 
divided into 365^ degrees for the days of the year, while 
each degree is sub-divided into one hundred parts, as for 
everything less than a degree the centenary scale prevailed 
at that period. I take these instruments to be of great 
interest, as indicating the state of astronomical science in 
China at about the end of the thirteenth century.” 

When we witness such perfection in art and such ad¬ 
vancement in science, we must not forget that the above- 
described instruments were made nearly four hundred 
years before the Greenwich Observatory was founded 
and two hundred years before Columbus discovered 
America, and that even a thousand years prior to that 
time China was a civilized nation. 

Some of the instruments before us were taken by the 
German officers to Berlin, and apparently are to remain 
there permanently. The Chinese do not seem to care 
enough for them to insist on their return. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 327 

We have been giving attention to circumstances of war, 
to palaces, to temples, memorial portals and astronomical 
instruments; now let me present to you an assemblage of 
Pekinese women near the London Mission. The London 
Mission is located on the east side of Von Ketteler street, 
about one mile north of the Ha-ta Gate. See the number 
32 in black on the map. 

91. A Group of Pekinese Women in the Court of a 
Wealthy Chinese Home, Pekin . 

As a type of South China, you saw the Bible woman at 
Canton, and of Middle China, you saw a class of pretty 
girls at Shanghai, and as a representation from the north 
we offer these Christianized women under the London 
Mission. An opinion prevails that the Chinese are a 
dwarfed race; in this respect, they seem, and not unnat¬ 
urally, to be confounded with the Japanese. It is a mis¬ 
take, however; the highest authority places the men in 
the north of China as being a little larger than the average 
European or American, and those at the south as a trifle 
smaller, while the average Chinese woman is smaller than 
the average of her sex in the West. The scarcity of 
beauty among Chinese women is remarked by every ob¬ 
server ; most persons forget, however, that all of the male 
sex are everywhere on view, while only the lower class 
among women are seen by the ordinary observer. Before 
a fair comparison can be made we must hide away from 
public view an equal proportion of Western beauty. We 
know, in China, all beauty is jealously screened from vul- 


328 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

gar gaze, while the opposite is true in Western countries. 
In general, it is readily conceded that the Caucasian face 
and figure are more comely than those of the Mongolian. 
The flat nose detracts much from the facial beauty of the 
Chinese. Roman or Greek noses would effect a marvel¬ 
ous alteration in their faces. Next to the depressed nasal 
feature, the ill-shaped mouth mars the Chinese face; the 
angular eyes do not seriously disparage their appearance. 
And I am not sure but the usual sadness of the female 
face in China detracts more from its attractiveness than 
aught else. A smile improves every face, but it altogether 
transforms a Chinese woman’s face. Poor things, they 
have little reason to smile! They are enslaved and im¬ 
prisoned ! 

A friend said to me: “ How is courtship perpetrated in 
China?” Well, all people are interested in matrimony, 
barring possibly thoroughly confirmed old bachelors; and 
as Chinese matrimonial customs are curious I cannot do 
better than to give some interesting and reliable state¬ 
ments from Williams’s “ Middle Kingdom.” 

“ There are six ceremonies which constitute a regular 
marriage, though their details vary much in different 
parts of the Empire: 1. The father and elder brother of 

the young man send a go-between to the father and 
brother of the girl, to inquire her name and the moment 
of her birth, that the horoscope may be examined in order 
to ascertain whether the proposed alliance will be a happy 
one. 2. If the eight characters seem to augur aright, the 
boy’s friends send the mei-jin (match-maker) back to 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 329 

make an offer of marriage. 3. If that be accepted, the 
second party is again requested to return an assent in writ¬ 
ing. 4. Presents are then sent to the girl’s parents ac¬ 
cording to the means of the father. 5. The go-between 
requests them to choose a lucky day for the wedding. 6. 
The preliminaries are concluded by the bridegroom going 
or sending a party of friends with music to bring his bride 
to his own house. The match-makers contrive to mul¬ 
tiply their visits and prolong the negotiations when the 
parties are rich, to serve their own ends. At Fukien, 
parents often send pledges to each other when their chil¬ 
dren are mere infants, and registers containing their 
names and particulars of nativity are exchanged in testi¬ 
mony of the contract. 

“ After this has been done it is impossible to retract the 
engagement, unless one of the parties become a leper or is 
disabled. When the children are espoused older, the boy 
sometimes accompanies the go-between and the party 
carrying the presents to the house of his future mother-in- 
law, and receives from her some trifling articles, as melon- 
seeds, fruits, etc., which he distributes to those around. 
Among the presents sent to the girl are fruits, money, 
vermicelli and a ham, of which she gives a morsel to each 
one of the party. 

“ These articles are neatly arranged, and the party 
bringing them is received with a salute of fire-crackers. 
From the time of her engagement until marriage a young 
lady is required to maintain the strictest seclusion. 
Whenever friends call upon her parents, she is expected to 


33° CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

retire to the inner apartments, and in all her actions and 
words guard her conduct with careful solicitude. . . . 

When the lucky day for the wedding comes, the guests as¬ 
semble in the bridegroom’s house to celebrate it, where 
also sedans, a band of music and porters are in readiness. 
The courier who acts as guide to the chair-bearers takes 
the lead, and in order to prevent the onset of malicious 
demons lurking by the road, a baked hog or large piece 
of pork is carried in front, that the procession may ad¬ 
vance safely while these hungry souls are devouring the 
meat. 

Meanwhile the bride arranges herself in her best dress 
and richest jewels. Her girlish tresses have already 
been bound up, and her hair arranged by a matron, with 
due formality; an ornamental and complicated headdress 
made of rich materials, not unlike a helmet or corona, 
often forms part of her coiffure. Her person is nearly 
covered by a large mantle, over which is an enormous hat 
like an umbrella, that descends to the shoulders and 
shades the whole figure. Thus attired she takes her seat 
in the red gilt marriage sedan, called hwa kiao, borne by 
four men, in which she is completely concealed. This is 
locked by her mother or some other relative, and the key 
given to one of the bridemen, who hands it to the bride¬ 
groom or his representative on reaching his house. The 
procession is now arranged with the addition of as many 
red boxes and trays to contain the wardrobe, kitchen uten¬ 
sils and the feast, as the means of the family or the para¬ 
phernalia require. As the procession approaches the 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 331 

bridegroom’s house the courier hastens forward to an¬ 
nounce its coming, whereupon the music strikes up, and 
fire-crackers salute her until she enters the gate. As she 
approaches the door the bridegroom conceals himself, but 
the go-between brings forward a young child to salute 
her, while going to seek the closeted bridegroom. He ap¬ 
proaches with becoming gravity and opens the sedan to 
hand out his bride, she still retaining the hat and mantle; 
they approach the ancestral tablet, which they reverence 
with three bows, and then seat themselves at a table on 
which are two cups of spirits. The go-between serves 
them, though the bride can only make the motion of drink¬ 
ing, as the large hat completely covers her face. TJiey 
soon retire into a chamber, where the husband removes 
the hat and mantle from his wife and sees her, perhaps for 
the first time in his life. After he has considered her for 
some time, the guests and friends enter the room to sur¬ 
vey her, when each one is allowed to express an opinon; 
the criticisms of the women are severest, perhaps because 
they remember the time they stood in her unpleasant po¬ 
sition. This cruel examination being over, she is intro¬ 
duced to her husband’s parents and then salutes her own.” 

This to us seems a strange nuptial ceremony, but cus¬ 
tom establishes many strange usages, and many of our 
own are strange to those to whom they are unfamiliar. 

Before leaving the group now before us, note carefully 
the rich dress, the neatly and curiously arranged hair and 
ornaments, and the small feet which have heretofore been 
described. We will introduce to you another group of 


332 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

northern women, Chinese subjects, but of the Manchurian 
type. Then you may see Manchurian feet, Manchurian 
coiffure, Manchurian dress and features. 

Q2* A Group of Manchu Women, with Typical Head¬ 
dress, of the London Mission, Pekin. 

T,he long gowns and peculiar headdress of these women 
stamp them as Manchus. Their feet were never bound 
and as a rule they are taller than Chinese women. 
These are Christian Manchus. This group and the 
group of Chinese women are taken from among sev¬ 
eral hundred refuges of the London Mission just after 
the siege of Pekin, and are at this time under the 
faithful guardianship of a Miss Smith. The Church and 
School property of the London Mission was entirely de¬ 
stroyed by fire, and the premises in which we now stand 
was the home of a Boxer leader, and were, after the relief 
of the legations, occupied by this mission and its host of 
homeless refugees which we will show you soon. At the 
request of Miss Smith the members of both groups hur¬ 
ried to their several apartments to don their best gowns 
and frills to appear before the foreigner’s picture-making 
device. It seemed to be their highest pleasure to do Miss 
Smith’s will, and well it might be; she had led them 
through fire and siege and was then feeding them on the 
results of her zealous efforts. Have you discerned in 
these Manchu faces a much lighter complexion and more 
prominent noses, and that their countenances generally in¬ 
dicate greater intellectual capacity? Have you observed 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 333 

that they are larger physically than the Chinese women? 
And I must tell you that some authorities consider the 
Manchus the most improvable race in central Asia, and 
possibly on the Continent, and many consider their admin¬ 
istration of the government in general as superior to that 
of the native sovereigns, notwithstanding the maladmin¬ 
istration of the present Empress. The men do not wear 
queues and the women do not bind their feet. I was at 
once impressed with the superiority of those I met. These 
are really the descendants of those vigorous Oriental 
Northmen who compelled the Chinese to build the Great 
Wall—the Tartars. You will notice some difference in 
their dress, a different style of shoe, a different way of 
arranging the hair. They display a wealth of richly em¬ 
broidered silks and satins in their dress, as do the Chinese 
women. Those shoes appear clumsy and inconvenient, 
and those huge cloth-covered blocks for soles are clumsy; 
but the marvelous fineness of the embroidered uppers 
quite atones for the heavy soles. 

The Manchu women have shown to the Chinese women 
the advantages of natural feet over bound feet for two 
hundred and fifty years without any noticeable effect. 
They look sturdy and unsentimental, but to see that they 
are not destitute of the poetic fancy we need only refer to 
their ancient books of poetry in which we shall find ex¬ 
pressed all the finer feelings of the human heart that are 
found in poems of the present time. I would like to 
show you while in the presence of these ladies some verses 
of Chinese poetry written about eight hundred years be- 


334 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


fore Christ and freely translated into English by the emi¬ 
nent Dr. Legge. Poetry and the fair sex are so often 
associated that no better opportunity will offer for pre¬ 
senting examples of the former than when we are in the 
presence of the latter. The great book of Chinese poems 
is called the Shu King, and from it we give the following 
madrigal: 

Maiden fair, so sweet, retiring, 

At the tryst I wait for thee; 

Still I pause in doubt, inquiring 
Why thou triflest thus with me. 

Oh! the maid so coy, so handsome, 

Pledged she with a rosy reed; 

Than the reed is she more winsome. 

Love with beauty hard must plead. 

In the meadows sought we flowers, 

Thus she gave me—beauteous, rare; 

Far above the gift there towers 
The dear giver—lovelier, fair! 

And here is a little poem called Kan-tang, or the 
“ Sweet Pear Tree,” written by a contemporary of Saul, 
and which seems to be an exact counterpart of “ Wood¬ 
man Spare That Tree”: 

i. O fell not the sweet pear-tree! 

See how its branches spread. 

Spoil not its shade, 

For Shao’s chief laid 

Beneath his weary head. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


335 


2. O clip not that sweet pear-tree! 

Each twig and leaflet spare— 

’Tis sacred now, 

Since the lord of Shao, 

When weary, rested him there. 

3. O touch not that sweet pear-tree! 

Bend not a twig of it now; 

There long ago, 

As the stories show 

Oft halted the chief of Shao. 

The following are two stanzas directed against a certain 
Mrs. Pao Sz, a mischief-maker in the court of King Yu; 
they give a wicked thrust at the poor women folk by some 
disgruntled member of the long-haired fraternity who 
lived over seven hundred years B. C.—or may be they are 
by a rustic poet in the Province of Kwei-Chow where the 
custom of the Couvade prevails. The Couvade is the cus¬ 
tom whereby a mother gets up at once after the birth of 
a child and performs her usual work, while the father 
takes to bed for a month with the baby. 

A wise man builds the city wall, 

But a wise woman throws it down. 

Wise is she? Good you may her call; 

She is an owl we would disown! 

To woman’s tongue let scope be given 
And step by step to harm it leads. 

Disorder does not come from Heaven; 

’Tis woman’s tongue disorder breeds. 

Women and Eunuchs! Never came 
Lesson or warning words from them! 


336 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

Hurtful and false, their spite they wreak 
And when exposed their falsehood lies— 

The wrong they do not own, but sneak 
And say, “ No harm did we devise.” 

The Chinese women we saw a few minutes ago have 
gone to the ruins of the London Mission, a short distance 
in the rear of this place; these Manchu women now go to 
the same place, and we shall follow. There we shall find 
assembled about the ruins of the church and school sev¬ 
eral hundred members of the Mission. 

g3. Miss Smith, a Heroine of the Siege, and Protected 
Refugees, among the Ruins of the London Mis¬ 
sion Schools, Pekin . 

We are in the presence of a host of homeless human be¬ 
ings all depending for food and shelter upon the noble 
little woman seated near the front with a child by her side. 
There are men and women, young and old. All these 
were sheltered and fed within the English Legation dur¬ 
ing two of the longest months which any of them have 
ever experienced. All within the Legation were saved; 
but all were not within that nobly defended fortress. 
Many friends and kin of these poor people were not so 
fortunate, but were mercilessly slain by the bloodthirsty 
Boxers. 

When Miss Smith, at my request, seated herself in 
front of her flock I asked her to have a native child stand 
by her side; not wishing to give the appearance of any 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 337 

partiality in such a choice, she asked me to choose one. 
From the first line where you see the children I brought 
the child that now stands at her side. “ Why, how 
strange,” exclaims Miss Smith, “ that you have brought to 
me this poor little thing that is the object of my tenderest 
love and sympathy! Do you know,” she continued, “ that 
both the father and mother of this little one were not only 
killed, but were dismembered and horribly chopped to 
pieces; her parents are gone, and all her friends are gone; 
there is no one left to look after her, and she is very dear 
to me.” These are the tender motherly words of the 
woman, who, when the shells were crashing into the Lega¬ 
tion, was as brave as she was loving after the Allies had 
brought safety—another evidence to prove, if proof were 
necessary, that tenderest hearts are bravest. 

The women and children are assembled here on the 
ruins of the burned church; the men stand by themselves 
farther away. The burned school buildings are beyond 
the men. Can you see among the group of women some 
of the Chinese and Manchu women we have already seen ? 
These Christian converts seemed to be deeply grateful to¬ 
ward Miss Smith. There stood in the court in which we 
saw the Chinese and Manchurian women, five silk um¬ 
brellas which they and their friends had presented to her 
as evidences of their gratitude, for, as previously ex¬ 
plained, the umbrella is the usual object given in token of 
especial regard. We might say that, as a present, the um¬ 
brella is the “ loving cup ” of China. 

In this same court where these honorary umbrellas 


338 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


stood and where were the groups of Chinese and Manchu 
ladies, I met Prince Su, whose palace and property were 
turned over to the beleaguered Legationers; he had 
proved from the beginning a friend to all the foreigners, 
and was on the best of terms with the people of the Lon¬ 
don Mission. He is a man of fine appearance and seems 
to delight in mingling with foreigners. He quite readily 
granted me a sitting for a stereoscopic photograph, and 
presented me with his card, explaining at the same time 
that it is not customary for a Chinese prince to use cards, 
though on account of his intimate relations with many 
foreigners he found it convenient to deviate from court 
usage. Instead of showing you his picture I give below a 





VISITING CARD OF PRINCE SU. 


representation of his card, but I cannot give the full size, 
which is its most curious feature, being four and one-half 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 339 

by ten inches, and made of thin red paper, much like fire¬ 
cracker paper. It is very possible that Prince Su will be 
appointed Chinese Secretary of State in the new organiza¬ 
tion of the government. 

You have, no doubt, noticed the gentleman seated near 
Miss Smith; that is the Rev. Joseph Stonehouse of the 
Mission, who had spent over twenty years in mission 
work in China. 1 met him on several occasions and found 
him a very amiable gentleman and zealous worker; and 
only a short time after I met him here, Mr. Stonehouse 
was visiting some of the mission stations not far from 
Yang-tsun when he was set upon by armed natives, pre¬ 
sumably Boxers, while crossing a river in a large ferry¬ 
boat. Five bullets were fired into his body while he 
crouched helplessly beneath his travelling cart. His mur¬ 
derers fled; his body was cared for by native Christians 
in the place where the murder occurred. Cavalry was at 
once dispatched from Yang-tsun, and the villages near 
the place were burned, but the bloodthirsty and unreason¬ 
ing assassins were never found. The London Mission 
was splendidly equipped for service. Their work was 
prosperous when the Boxer war broke out and their fine 
premises were reduced to the condition seen before us. 

Probably the most interesting place in the neighbor¬ 
hood of Pekin is the Summer Palace of the Empress 
among the western hills, some thirteen miles westward. 
As already stated I made the journey on foot and in a 
single day, which is a little too much for a pleasure trip. 
A trip there in memory is much easier and quicker. I 


340 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


remember very distinctly passing over a level plain, along 
a road flagged with large square stones, past little villages 
of brick houses with tile roofs, and by waving fields of 
millet, till I reached the western hills, at the base of which 
i encountered a small lake fed by mountain streams. The 
lake and the Imperial grounds are surrounded by a high 
wall. I passed within the wall and around one side of the 
lake and over a beautiful marble bridge to a small island 
on the lake on which are erected gates, temples, pavilions 
and rockeries. You may now stand with me by one of 
the summer-houses and look across the lake toward the 
many indescribable structures on the opposite shore. 

Turning to Map No. 2, “ Eastern China,” we find our 
red route line extending northwest of Pekin to the loca¬ 
tion of the Summer Palace. 

94. Wan-Shou-Shan (Hill of Ten Thousand Ages ) 
Summer Palace of the Empress, from Island in 
hake Kun-Ming-Hu, near Pekin. 

This Imperial retreat is called Wan-Shou-Shan, which 
signifies Hill of Ten Thousand Ages, and has been used 
as the summer residence of the Empress since the destruc¬ 
tion of the original Summer Palace at Yuen-Ming-Yuen, 
which lies a mile to the north of this place. Yuen-Ming- 
Yuen was destroyed by a former invasion of “ Allies ” in 
i860. Before its destruction it was a magnificent place 
four and one-half miles in circumference, covered with all 
sorts of beautiful and luxurious structures. Since its 
demolition by the Allies in i860 it has only partially been 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 341 

restored and Wan-Shou-Shan continues to be the Sum¬ 
mer Palace. From this point you are able to look across 
the small lake from an island near the south shore. You 
know that the Palace in Pekin was a city of itself, a For¬ 
bidden City, rather than one palatial structure. We find 
the same here—almost a small city forming an amphi¬ 
theater on the southern slope of the hill and around the 
western shore of the lake. Our field of vision includes 
only a section of the numerous buildings that extend for 
nearly a half mile along the shore of the lake. The slope 
of the hill and the edge of the lake is covered with trees 
and studded with villas and arcades. Off to the right, 
but not within our range of vision are landing stages, near 
which are moored row-boats, sail-boats and two small 
steam yachts, all toys of the Empress. The most con¬ 
spicuous object before us on the opposite side of the lake 
is a gigantic structure or terrace built of solid masonry, 
and ascended on either side by stone stairways, which are 
shown on that perpendicular wall by the dark lines. The 
terrace is surmounted by a huge tower, temple or pagoda. 
It has been called a temple, but I could find no one on the 
grounds who knew its purpose. I would naturally con¬ 
sider it an Imperial out-look tower. It is covered with 
glazed yellow tile and can be seen sparkling in the sun at 
a great distance. Later, before leaving the Summer Pal¬ 
ace, we shall pass around the lake and ascend the hill to 
the left of that tower near the wall. We shall stand just 
before that bush by the wall, on a line with the tower 
where we can obtain a near view. 


342 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

There is a pretty pavilion at our right hand, and the 
massive rail before us surrounds it. The pavilion is of 
white marble ornamented with peculiar designs, chief of 
which is, of course, the dragon. Beyond the rail rising 
from the edge of the water is an artificial rockery, in the 
construction of which the Chinese show unusual skill. 

When I started for the Summer Palace in the convey¬ 
ance afore mentioned and found I could not sustain the 
shock of a Pekinese cart, I picked up on the street two 
coolies to carry my outfit; they are here before us, one on 
the rockery and one on the rail. One of these fellows was 
unequal to the walk of twenty-six miles and gave out on 
the return when we were within two miles of my quar¬ 
ters. It was after ten o’clock, on a dark night, before we 
got within the city walls. The one coolie who was en¬ 
tirely exhausted lagged behind, and in the darkness 
turned into a side alley with the evident intention of se¬ 
creting himself and retaining my valuable apparatus. 
When he seemed to be suspiciously far behind I ran back 
to the end of the by-way up which I knew he must have 
gone, and, hearing a slight noise in that direction, I dashed 
on in the darkness and overtook him just as he was en¬ 
tering a small native house. I collared him, brought him 
into the alley, took my apparatus and left him there. He 
never afterwards appeared to claim his day’s hire. 

To reach the mainland from this pretty islet we cross 
a beautiful bridge at which we will also stop for a mo¬ 
ment. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 343 

95 . Magnificent Marble Bridge at the Imperial Sum¬ 
mer Palace, near Pekin . 

This fine bridge contains seventeen arches and is made 
largely of marble. The workmanship is superior; the long 
line of figures on the rail show much labor and consider¬ 
able skill. A few glances only about the Summer Palace 
will tell us why the Empress spends so little of her time 
within the prison-like confines of the Forbidden City. 
Here there are crystal springs and mountain breezes and 
commanding prospects, all that nature and art can add to 
make the surroundings attractive. At the time I was here 
the grounds were deserted, except by a few foreign sol¬ 
diers who were guarding the entrance, and an occasional 
group of visitors who had gained permission to visit the 
ground. In ordinary times the public is excluded as rig¬ 
orously as at the Sacred City. When the Court occupies 
the Palace this bridge and the lake are not so devoid of 
life; then the water is dotted with row-boats, and sail¬ 
boats, and the entire royal area within the wall, as well 
as the villages outside where servants live, is full of ac¬ 
tivity. You can better understand the populousness of 
the place when I tell you that the Emperor is entitled to 
three thousand eunuchs, but the actual number employed 
is about two thousand. These eunuchs perform the work 
of the household. The number of females in the harem is 
not known, but it would probably far exceed the plurality 
of wives accredited to the celebrated Mormon prophet. 
The Court, with all its multifarious service and functions, 
must embrace a population of many thousands. From 


344 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


this bridge the lake extends a half-mile in either direc¬ 
tion, and the mountain slopes outside the Imperial domain 
are dotted with temples and homes of noted Chinamen. 

As I walked across this bridge I found at the farther 
end the figure of a cow cast in bronze and mounted on a 
base of stone. In my walk of a mile about the lake I 
passed many curious structures, all showing unmistakable 
signs of the looter and the iconoclast. For our final look 
at Wan-Shou-Shan we climb the hill to the point men¬ 
tioned from our first position. 

96 . Grand Porcelain Tower, One of the Splendid 
Buildings of the Imperial Summer Palace, near 
Pekin . 

Here we obtain a good view of the great porcelain 
tower which overlooks the entire plain lying between us 
and Pekin. It is a vast creation of stone and tile and 
decorative work after the Chinese fashion. I entered and 
ascended to the top, expecting to find something to reveal 
its purpose; but found nothing to show that its use is 
for aught else than an observation tower. Indeed, there 
were many buildings about the grounds whose use could 
not be determined by their appearance; many of them, no 
doubt, the outcome of Imperial whims or fancies. Not¬ 
withstanding “ the divinity that doth hedge a king,” he 
is subject to human ambitions like other mortals. Royalty 
is certainly somewhat expensive! Here is a populous 
city, there is another at Yuen-Ming-Yuen, the Forbidden 
City is another and then the private palace outside the 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 


345 


Forbidden City; all these exist to gratify the cruel and 
unscrupulous vanity of an old Manchu woman. Millions 
are starving, and the one arch-mischief-maker sports four 
palaces, and three of these are verily cities, and all, we 
may say, for her personal luxury. The pomp and the 
palaces, of course, help on the “ divinity that doth hedge,” 
etc., and if the suffering masses can be kept in ignorance 
the “ divinity ” can be maintained—millions upon millions 
for the maintenance of a Christian-killing Empress, while 
thousands upon thousands are starving in honest poverty. 
Look upon these multiplied palaces and palace luxuries 
and then witness the staring eyes of starvation in the 
“ dying place ” at Canton. It does not require the “ hedg¬ 
ing of divinity ” to make an intelligent and democratic 
people love and honor a Washington, a Lincoln or a Mc¬ 
Kinley ; and in this respect what is true of China may be 
true of all monarchical or monarch-supporting govern¬ 
ments. Democracy elects fitness for sovereignty, but em¬ 
pires inherit the next in line—many times unfit to rule; 
then comes the necessity for hedging with divinity. We 
did not love dear “ Old Abe ” less because he was not 
housed in a congeries of palaces, or because his beloved 
personality was not “ hedged ” by lese-majeste. But if 
we linger in this line of thought before this great porce¬ 
lain tower we shall soon be calling it a tower of shame. 
At the right of the tower we can see the plain over which 
we must pass to reach Pekin; only for the hazy atmos¬ 
phere we could faintly discern the outlines of the city thir- 


346 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

teen miles away. Now let us climb down this steep hill¬ 
side and wend our way back to the quaint old capital. 

A few days after my return from this Summer Palace 
to Pekin, during a casual visit to the United States Lega¬ 
tion, I found Minister Conger preparing to set out on an 
official visit in his official chair. 

97 . Minister Conger leaving the legation in His Offi¬ 
cial Chair, which is always used in making 
Official Calls , Pekin, 

At the Legation Minister Conger kindly consented to 
allow me to make a picture of himself and his secretaries 
in the Legation rooms. It was during this sitting that 
our popular Minister spoke of going out in his official 
chair, when it occurred to me that to see him leaving the 
grounds would be interesting, as showing the formalities 
which must be observed at the Court of Pekin. It brings 
to mind also, that among the many different branches of 
the government organization, there is a ceremonial court 
whose duty it is to regulate forms to be observed and in 
marshaling visitors according to their proper ranks, and 
directing them when to make the “ Kowtow.” The 
kowtow is a formal bowing or kneeling and has many 
variations or degrees according to the rank before whom 
made; before the Emperor a kowtow consists in kneel¬ 
ing three times and knocking the head on the floor nine 
times. The refusal to comply with this formality on the 
part of foreign officials, has, at times in the past, led to 
international friction. Foreigners are not unwilling to 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 347 

make their rounds in a sedan-chair, but they do not take 
to the requirements of kneeling and whacking their heads 
on the floor. 

1'hese chair-bearers have been waiting for some time in 
the court of the Legation. They are dressed in distinctive 
garb of red and white, with regulation hats. An avant- 
courier stands at one side with an air of superiority, and 
it is his duty to howl commands for all to clear the way 
for the important occupant of the chair. The highest 
dignitaries are carried by eight bearers, others by four, 
and ordinary mortals by two. There are two kinds of 
sedan-chairs, those made of bamboo for common people, 
and those elaborately curtained and upholstered. Or¬ 
dinary persons are forbidden to use the latter; only those 
holding some rank are allowed to use them. In the cities 
chair-bearers are organized into guilds, and their estab¬ 
lishments are the livery-stables of the country. In some 
places the chair-bearers are nicknamed mo-mi-ma, i. e., 
tailless horses. 

While the sedan-chair is a very primitive conveyance, 
every one must confess it is one of the most luxurious, 
and reminds the rider how well adjusted with springs is 
the “ tailless horse.” When a set of chair-bearers are 
passing through the narrow streets of a city like Canton 
they keep up a dismal howl that reminds one of the ap¬ 
proach of a band of howling monkeys in the jungles of 
the Amazon; this notifies the crowds in the street to clear 
the way, but the warning is so common that it is seldom 
heeded. The chair has the right of way, and when peo- 


348 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

pie are struck by it they do not seem to mind it; their 
equanimity can scarcely be disturbed. In any other coun¬ 
try the passage of a sedan-chair would, in a dense thor¬ 
oughfare, engender endless broils and fisticuffs. 

Mr. Conger is in the first chair, and his secretary is in 
the second. This official mode of travelling from place 
to place shows you exactly how Baron Von Ketteler was 
passing along the street which now bears his name, his 
secretary following, as Mr. Conger’s secretary is follow¬ 
ing here, when foully murdered. 

While Mr. Conger obligingly halted for a moment he 
told me that if I could get a stereograph of Prince Ching 
I would be scoring a great success. Now you may meet 
him whose picture Mr. Conger thought so desirable and 
so difficult to obtain. 

g 8 . Prince Ching, Commander of the City Guard — 
Secret friend of the Legations during the Siege 
—later Peace Commissioner, Pekin. 

There are not many men in the world who have earned 
a wider celebrity than this member of the ruling dynasty. 
Another prince has earned for himself an infamy as 
world-wide as this man’s fame; I refer to Prince Tuan 
who was the head and inspiration of the Boxer horde, 
and who is now likely to reap the fate which due retribu¬ 
tion will probably mete to him, that is, banishment or 
some other extreme penalty. Prince Ching, who sits be¬ 
fore us, has always been favorably disposed toward for¬ 
eigners, and at the crucial moment, when the fate of the 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 349 

Legations and all the foreigners in Pekin was in the 
hands of the shuffling Yamen, he did not hesitate to admit 
that he had failed to convince the court of the danger of 
inactivity and that he was helplesss in adjusting matters. 
When Sir Claude Macdonald found it was useless to dis¬ 
cuss matters longer with the vacillating Yamen he de¬ 
manded an interview with Prince Ching, who stated to 
him frankly that the government was not able to control 
the Boxers, and that foreigners could not expect protec¬ 
tion either in Pekin or in any part of China. Prince 
Ching was President of the Tsung-li Yamen, and for his 
suspected sympathy with the foreigners was suddenly re¬ 
moved from the head of the Yamen by the Empress, and 
the Boxer chief, Prince Tuan, appointed in his place. 
There can be little doubt that only for these frank and 
friendly avowals of Prince Ching the Legations and all 
the Europeans would have attempted to obey the order 
which they had received to quit the capital and proceed to 
Tien-tsin; and this step, in the minds of everyone, would 
have resulted in indiscriminate slaughter. Can we won¬ 
der then that there exists a kindly feeling toward this true 
prince, or that when peace commissioners were to be 
chosen from among the Chinese to confer with the foreign 
ministers in the settlement of the great question between 
the Empire and the Allies, that Prince Ching should be the 
choice of the nations whose representatives he had saved ? 
He has held many important positions besides being the 
head of the Foreign Office. In 1885 he was appointed 
along with Prince Chun and Li Hung Chang to take con- 


350 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

trol of naval affairs, and now he has been coupled with 
China’s famous statesman and viceroy in the adjudication 
of the Empire’s imbroglio with the world. He is a near 
relative of the Emperor, and has now been mentioned as 
a possible successor to Li Hung Chang as Secretary of 
State and Viceroy; being so important a personage in the 
affairs of China and the world you can understand why 
our minister told me if I could secure his photograph I 
would “ score a success.” Along with an irrepressible 
New York correspondent who had secured credentials to 
Prince Ching from the Secretary of Li Hung Chang, and, 
couriered through the ramshackle wilderness of the Tar¬ 
tar City by a native “ boy,” I reached the palace of Prince 
Ching in the extreme northwestern portion of the city. 
See number 35 in black on Pekin map. Like all Chinese 
palaces it is a series of courts flanked by low buildings 
on every side. In an alley outside we were met by the 
official interpreter for the Prince, who explained to us that 
in a short time his excellency would receive us; finally we 
were taken to this interior court, where the Prince soon 
appeared and greeted us kindly. The interpreter had, of 
course, already explained to him that we desired his 
photograph for the American people, who looked upon 
him as their friend. His manner is grave and dignified, 
but with no sign of official dignity. As you can see he is 
of medium stature and apparently about seventy years 
of age. His garments are of heavy brocaded silk; the 
ample sleeves take the place of gloves; a magnificent ruby 
within a circle of pearls ornaments the front of his cap. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 351 

The correspondent asked for permission to speak with 
his excellency for a few minutes; this was readily granted, 
and the weather being chilly, we were asked to accom¬ 
pany him to a reception-room, where tea was at once 
served to us. I took along with me for his inspection a 
series of stereoscopic photographs, that he might under¬ 
stand the kind of picture I wished to make of him. The 
interpreter had, meanwhile, intimated to the Prince some¬ 
thing about the photographs I had brought to show him. 
He seemed almost impatient to get hold of the stereoscope 
and stereographs, but the correspondent had him im- 
meshed in his catechism for a time. At length he again 
glanced inquisitively toward the stereoscope, when I ad¬ 
vanced and adjusted it to his eyes and passed a number 
of stereographs through it. He was visibly impressed 
with the realistic effect; they were the first stereoscopic 
photographs he had ever seen; he never wearied and 
scarcely withdrew his head from the hood of the stereo¬ 
scope till all the views had been passed through. He 
scrutinized the stereoscope to ascertain where the re¬ 
markable effect came from. I asked the interpreter to 
tell him that his own photograph in this form with the 
instrument would be sent to him. 

While we were yet sipping our delicious tea I asked the 
interpreter if his excellency would not permit us to carry 
back to America as souvenirs of the honor he had con¬ 
ferred upon us, the cups from which we were drinking 
the tea. He smiled benignantly and ordered the servant 


352 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

to bring two better cups. More delicate specimens were 
soon forthcoming, into which we poured the remainder 
of our tea that we might say we had drunk tea from them 
with Prince Ching. The Prince said he had not had 
his photograph taken for eight years previous to this time, 
when a Dutch painter made of him an oil-portrait, which 
he took from the wall to show us. 

After thanking him suitably for his hospitality and the 
patient audience and sitting he had given us, we retired 
to the alley whence we entered, and where the interpreter 
was joined by three members of the T t sung-li Yamen, 
whom you will be interested in meeting now. 

99 . The Empress Dowager’s Counselors in dealings 
with the Powers—Members of the Tsung-li Ya¬ 
men, Pekin. 

The Chinese government is administered through sev¬ 
eral branches, such as the Board of Civil Office, the Board 
of Revenue, the Board of Rites, the Board of War, the 
Board of Punishments, the Board of Works, etc., and 
only in recent years has a new board been created called 
the Tsung-li Yamen, or Board of Foreign Affairs. The 
whole duty of the Tsung-li Yamen is to receive and con¬ 
fer with foreign ministers and to act as an intermediary 
between them and the Court. All diplomatic communica¬ 
tions to the different Boards, or to the throne must be 
made through the Tsung-li Yamen. No foreign minister 
can come before the Emperor or the Empress. This con¬ 
dition of affairs is both inconvenient and offensive. It 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 353 

was painfully exemplified during the siege of 1900 when 
this treacherous go-between Board screened the sinister 
motives of the crafty Empress. In the peace negotiations, 
now signed at Pekin, it is said that a radical alteration 
has been made in the relations of the foreign ministers to 
the Court, and that the article relating thereto is as fol¬ 
lows : 

“ The Chinese Government shall be bound to reform the 
Chinese Foreign Office and the court ceremonial for the 
reception of the foreign representatives, and to do so in 
the sense which shall be defined by the Foreign Powers.” 

At any rate you have before you three representatives 
of the notorious Chinese Board of Foreign Affairs. 
These are men who were in office during the siege, the one 
seated is the interpreter. What do you think of them ? I 
hope you will not fail to notice the fine feathers in their 
caps, because I swung two of these dignitaries partially 
around that you might see them. These are important 
men in Chinese affairs; they are members of the newly 
organized Board. How we would like to know just what 
they did and said and thought during those dark days of 
the siege; being identified with Prince Ching they, of 
course, pretend that they were friendly, but sincerity is a 
rare thing in the “ Middle Kingdom,” and then the faces 
of Chinamen so often possess a coldness which dispels 
confidence. 

General Wilson in his latest revision of his book on 
China says of this modern Board of Foreign Affairs: 

“ In view of the fact that none of the members of the 


354 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

Board understand English, or any other foreign language, 
and none of the foreign ministers speaks Chinese, all con¬ 
versation must be carried on through the intervention of 
official interpreters, and to prevent mistakes all official 
communications must be in writing, translated into the 
court dialect, or literary language of the country. As 
this language is almost an insuperable obstacle to the gen¬ 
eral dissemination of Western knowledge, and as there is 
no social intercourse whatever between foreigners and the 
conservative Chinese officials or their families, it will read¬ 
ily be seen that there cannot be a very active interchange 
of ideas between them.” 

A careful student of Chinese affairs in Pekin for 
many years said to me of the representatives of the 
Tsung-li Yamen. The members of the Tsung-li Yamen 
are not usually chosen because of their intelligence. It is 
a place where men with progressive tendencies are some¬ 
times put to keep them in check. There are eleven mem¬ 
bers and nine are requisite for the transaction of business, 
and as most of them are reactionary there is little hope 
that a man with progressive spirit will have any special 
influence. However, there were two men of high courage 
in the summer of 1900 who protested against the murder 
of unarmed foreigners, and for endeavoring to protect the 
helpless these two men were beheaded. T,he Yamen has 
proved to be practically useless for the transaction of busi¬ 
ness, and now it is replaced by the Office of Foreign 
Affairs. Whether they will do any better remains to be 
seen. 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 355 

An assemblage of the representatives of the great pow¬ 
ers are meeting daily to discuss the great questions of in¬ 
demnities, penalties and the future relations of the Empire 
to the nations concerned. A stupendous responsibility 
devolves upon these representatives. Both for the terrible 
siege through which most of them passed and for the im¬ 
portant work they are doing, it is both a pleasure and an 
honor to meet these noteworthy men. 

100. Ministers of Foreign Powers during Negotiations 
with China—leaving Spanish Legation after a 
sitting — Pekin. 

We have just entered the Spanish Legation from Lega¬ 
tion Street, a little east of the English Legation. The ten 
foreign ministers are emerging from the assembly-room 
at the end of a morning session and find themselves con¬ 
fronted by two cameras. Major Conger who seemed to 
enjoy an esteemed seniority among the ministers and with 
whom a previous arrangement had been made for this 
stereograph, addressed them somewhat as follows: 

“ Gentlemen, we are besieged again! This time, how¬ 
ever, by a gentleman from New York who represents a 
house that does magnificent photographic work, and if 
you will halt for a moment he will possibly send us each a 
fine photograph; now, how shall we stand, Mr. Pho¬ 
tographer ?” “As you like,” was the reply, “except, do 
not try to look pretty ”; when some member in sotto voce 
jocularly rejoined: “We have enough on hand without 
undertaking greater tasks.” 


356 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

Thus in a few moments this scene was snatched by the 
sun-ray and registered for the future centuries among the 
annals of history. The different members of this tribunal 
of the nations may be identified as follows: 

Of those standing on the lowest step, Major E. H. Con¬ 
ger (U. S. A.) is to the left, Don B. J. de Cologan 
(Spain) is in the center and Dr. Von Mumm (Germany) 
is to the right. Of the two standing on the second step, 
M. De Giers (Russia) is on the left next to Minister Con¬ 
ger and Baron M. C. De Wallton (Austria-Hungary) is 
on the right. On the next step back Marquis J. Saloago 
Reggi (Italy) is to the left, directly behind Minister Con¬ 
ger. Then comes Baron Missi (Japan) and M. N. Joos- 
tens (Belgium). In the doorway Baron d’A. de Wasser- 
wass (France) is on the left and Sir E. Satow, the newly 
appointed British Minister, is on the right. 

The task of this diplomatic corps has been very great, 
very difficult and protracted. It is impossible for people 
not versed in diplomacy to comprehend the endless num¬ 
ber of subtle and perplexing matters that have demanded 
its careful deliberations, and the whole civilized world is 
its censor. Of course these men are but intermediaries 
between their respective governments and the Chinese 
Empire, yet their duties are complex. Most of them en¬ 
dured the privations and suspense of the siege, yet a 
year’s struggle with perplexing problems awaited them. 
Diplomacy has been slow to learn that in dealing with the 
Chinese Government confidence is never safe; the Boxer 
uprising is not the first. Treaties have been often made, 


CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 357 

but seldom honored, and now all the world wonders what 
will be the outcome of this last insurrection. Will China 
modernize and assimilate, or will she compromise in order 
to gain time only to make greater preparation to debar 
the Caucasian of the West, as she walled out the Tartar 
from the North? Time holds the secrets of the future, 
and for the issues of this great international settlement 
made by these ministers, we must wait. 

In taking leave of these men we also conclude our 
itinerary in China. We have passed from Canton at the 
south to the devastated capital at the north. We have 
witnessed in our wanderings the wretchedness of hopeless 
poverty and suffering, and the stupid and demoralizing 
luxuries of wealth; we have seen the “ King of Beggars ” 
and the Princes of the Empire; we have seen the poor, 
burden-bearing coolie whose labor feeds the luxurious 
mandarin; we have seen the Tankia in their little floating 
homes and the many palaces of sovereignty. We have 
been stoned by the superstitious rustics among the moun¬ 
tains ; we have “ chowed ” with mandarins. We have 
looked upon the bloody and harrowing circumstances of 
war, and as we are about to make our leave-taking obei¬ 
sance before this ancient contemporary of Egypt and 
Babylon, we cannot but wonder what is to become of her. 
She is weak by reason of her unpreparedness for defense, 
and the vultures of Western commercialism are “watching 
out.” Even now she has ceased to be a sovereign power 
when the allied nations can dictate enormous indemnities 
and the demolition of her coast defenses and the regulation 


358 CHINA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 

of her own internal affairs. China has international obli¬ 
gations to perform; none will consider her blameless; yet 
the various nations need to be very careful that they do 
not come to play the part of vigorous young bullies maul¬ 
ing a feeble and helpless centenarian. 


UNDERWOOD STEREOSCOPIC TOURS 

The Underwood ‘‘Tours” of Original Stereoscopic Photographs are put up in 
neat leatherette cases, as indicated below, and the stereographs are arranged in the order 
a tourist would visit the actual places. 

Our improved Aluminum-Mahogany Stereoscope sells for go cents. This is not in¬ 
cluded in the prices^ given below. A higher priced stereoscope can be furnished if desired. 

The “ Traveling in the Holy Land” Tour—ioo Original Stereoscopic Photo¬ 
graphs, descriptive book, in cloth, by Dr. J. L. Hurlbut, with seven Patent Maps and 
Leatherette Case,—$17.60. 

The “Jerusalem” Tour (a part of the “Traveling in the Holy Land” Tour) 
—27 Stereoscopic Photographs, descriptive pamphlet, with new Patent Map and Case, 
—$4.50. e 

The Russian Tour—100 Original Stereoscopic Photographs, descriptive book, in 
cloth, by M. S. Emery, with ten Patent Maps and Leatherette Case,—$17.60. 

The “St. Petersburg” Tour (a part of the Russian Tour) —39 Stereoscopic 
Photographs, descriptive book with five Patent Maps and Case, —$6.50. 

The “ Moscow” Tour (a part of the Russian Tour)—27 Stereoscopic Photographs, 
descriptive book with three Patent Maps and Case,—$4.50. 

The Italian Tour—100 Original Stereoscopic Photographs, descriptive book, in 
cloth, by D. J. Ellison, D.D., with ten Patent Maps and Leatherette Case.—$18.00. 

The “Rome” Tour (a part of the Italian Tour)—46 Stereoscopic Photographs, 
descriptive book, in cloth, with five Patent Maps and Case,—$8.60. 

The “ Egypt and its Wonders” Tour—100 Original Stereoscopic Photographs, 
descriptive book, in cloth, and Leatherette Case,—$16.60. 

The Chinese Tour—100 Original Stereoscopic Photographs, descriptive book, in 
cloth, by James Ricalton, with eight Patent Maps and Leatherette Case,—$17.60. 

The “ Hongkong and Canton ” Tour (a part of the Chinese Tour)— 15 Stereo¬ 
scopic Photographs, descriptive book, with three Patent Maps,—$2.50. 

The “ Boxer Uprising Cheefoo, Taku, Tien-Tsin ” (a part of the Chinese 
Tour)—26 Stereoscopic Photographs, descriptive book and three Patent Maps,—$4.40. 

The “Pekin” Tour (a part of the Chinese Tour)—31 Stereoscopic Photo¬ 
graphs, descriptive book, with two Patent Maps and Case, $5.25. 

The Swiss Tour (100 Original Stereoscopic Photographs, descriptive book, in cloth, 
by M. S. Emery, with eleven Patent Maps and Leatherette Case,—$17.60. 

The “ Bake Lucerne ” Tour (a part of the Switzerland Tour)— 11 Stereoscopic 
Photographs, with descriptive book and three Patent Maps,—$1 .85. 

The “Bernese Alps” Tour (a part of the Switzerland Tour)—27 Stereoscopic 
Photographs, with descriptive book and three Patent Maps,—$4.50. 

The “ Engadine ” Tour (a part of the Switzerland Tour)—8 Stereoscopic Photo¬ 
graphs, with descriptive book and four Patent Maps, —$1.35. . 

The “Zermatt” Tour (a part of the Switzerland Tour)— 15 Stereoscopic Photo¬ 
graphs, with descriptive book and two Patent Maps, $2.50. 

The “Mont Blanc” Tour (a part of the Switzerland Tour)—23 Stereoscopic 
Photographs, with descriptive book and two Patent Maps,—$3.85. 

The French Tour—72 Original Stereoscopic Photographs and Leatherette Case,— 
$12.00. . . , 

The “ Paris Exposition ” Tour —60 Original Stereoscopic Photographs, Map 
with New Patent System and Description, and Leatherette Case, —$10.00. 

The Spanish Tour— 100 Original Stereoscopic Photographs and Leatherette Case, 
—$16.60. 

The Portuguese Tour—60 Original Stereoscopic Photographs and Leatherette 
Case,—$10.00. . , , _ 

The German Tour—84 Original Stereoscopic Photographs and Leatherette Case, 
—$14.00. , 

The Austrian Tour—84 Original Stereoscopic Photographs and Leatherette Case, 
—$14.00. 

The “ Great Britain ” Tour—72 Original Stereoscopic Photographs and Leather¬ 
ette Case,—$12.00. . , _ . 

The Scandinavian Tour—120 Original Stereoscopic Photographs and Leather¬ 
ette Case,—$16.60. . _ 

The Grecian Tour—72 Original Stereoscopic Photographs and Leatherette Case, 
—$12.00 


The Japanese Tour— 72 Original Stereoscopic Photographs and Leatherette Case, 
—$12.00. 

The “ United States ” Tour, No. 1 —100 Original Stereoscopic Photographs and 
Leatherette Case, $16.60. 

The “ United States ” Tour, No. 2 —200 Original Stereoscopic Photographs in 
Leatherette Cases,—$33.20. 

The “Philippine” Tour—100 Original Stereoscopic Photographs and Leather¬ 
ette Case, $16.60. 

The Cuban and Porto Rican Set—100 Original Stereoscopic Photographs and 
Leatherette Case,—$16.60. 

The Spanish-American War Set—100 Original Stereoscopic Photographs and 
Leatherette Case,—$16.60. (A Set of 72 and Case,—$12.00.) 

The Mexican Tour—100 Original Stereoscopic Photographs and Leatherette Case,— 
$16.60. 

The Britisli-Boer War Set—100 Original Stereoscopic Photographs and Leather¬ 
ette Case,—$16.60. 

The “Trip Around the World” Tour—72 Original Stereoscopic Photo¬ 
graphs with Descriptive Book and Leatherette Case,—$12.00. 

The “ Niagara Falls ” Tour—18 Original Stereoscopic Photographs with neat 
Case and Descriptive Book with two Patent Maps,—$3.00. 

The “ Yosemite ” Tour—24 Original Stereoscopic Photographs, descriptive book, 
by Chas. Z. Turner, with Patent Map and Case,—$4.00. 

“ President McKinley ” Set No. 1 , containing 12 Stereographs in a neat case, 
—$2.00. 

“ President McKinley ” Set No. 2 , containing 24 Stereographs in a neat case, 

—$4-oo. 

“President McKinley” Set No. 4 , containing 48 Stereographs in a neat 
Leatherette Case, with descriptive book, by B. Underwood, $8.50. 

“ President McKinley ” Set No. 5 , containing 60 Stereographs in a neat 
Leatherette Case, with descriptive book, by B. Underwood, $10.50, or in a genuine 
leather case, velvet lined, with inscription stamped in silver,—$12.00. 

Other interesting and instructive tours can be made up from our large collection of 
stereographs always in stock. 

We advise our customers to purchase complete series on the countries they may be 
interested in. One hundred Stereoscopic Photographs of one country will generally 
give much better satisfaction than the same number scattered over several countries. 
Many of our patrons are placing all of our Educational Stereoscopic Tours in their 
homes alongside of the standard works in their libraries. Schools and public libraries 
are finding our Stereographs very helpful in their work. The United States Govern¬ 
ment considers them so valuable that all Educational Tours published to date, with the 
new Underwood Extension Cabinet, were recently purchased for the U. S. Military 
Academy at West Point. 

When two or more of the “ 100 ” tours are wanted, we recommend the “ New 
Underwood Extension Cabinet” —the only practical Stereograph Cabinet in 
existence. It can be “ built up ” from time to time as desired, holding from 200 to 2,000 
Stereographs, or more. 

No. 2.— Quartered Oak Extension Cabinet, Oxydized trimmings, (for holding 200 
Stereographs and two Stereoscopes,)— $4.25. 

No. 4.—Quartered Oak Extension Cabinet, Oxydized trimmings, (for holding 400 
Stereographs and two Stereoscopes^)—$5.70. 

No. 6.—Quartered Oak Extension Cabinet, Oxydized trimmings, (for holding 600 
Stereographs and two Stereoscopes,)— $7.20. 

No. 1.—Quartered Oak “ Extension,” Oxydized trimmings, (for holding 200 Stereo¬ 
graphs and to be used in “ building up ” the Extension Cabinet,)—$2.35. 

We shall be pleased to send to any one interested our book on “ The Stereoscope and 
Stereoscopic Photographs” by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD, 

Fifth Avenue and 19th Street, New York. 

LONDON, ENGLAND. 

TORONTO, CANADA. 

OTTAWA, KANSAS. 

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA. 


MAP NO. 1 


WESTERN HEMISPHERE 


EASTERN HEMISPHERE 



COPYRIGHT 1902, BY UNDERWOOD <t UNDERWOOD 



























































MAP NO. 2 


ap No. 8 
teroographs 
I os. 69-93, 
7-100. 


lap No. 7 — 
stereographs 
Jos. 48-67 


lap No. 4 
Stereographs 
■Jos. 3-15. 


lap No. 3_ 
ite reographs 
Jos. 1-2 



ENGRAVED BY R.D.6CRVOSS, N.Y. 


COPYRIGHT 1902, BY UNDERWOOD 4 UNDERWOOO 


J at entry 
Patent* 


900 . S. G . D. G. 
Patents applied fo 





EXPLANATIONS 

OF 

MAP SYSTEM. 





(1) 

The red line 

with arrows shows the g 

eneral route along which the places 

to be 

seen In the stereographs are located. 





(2) 

The number* 

i in red refer to steriOgri 

aphs correspondingly numbered. 







(3) 

The rectangl 

es In red ( 1 |) show the 

boundaries of special maps on a lai 

rger sc 

lale, as specified on the map margin 

1 ■* the end of the fin® 

line wh 

ich runs 

from 


each rectangle. 

(4) Sometl 
on the route where 


nea the numbers of stereographs not found 
the places they represent are located. 


zig* a 9 


Map No. 6 
Stereographs 
Nos. 45-47 


Map No. 5 
Stereog raphs 
Nos. 16.22 
.28-29 


running to the point 









































































































MAP NO 3 


ap No. 4 
ereographs 
ns, 3-15 



EXPLANATIONS OF MAP SYSTEM. 

(1) The red line with arrows shows the steamboat route from Hong Kong to Canton. 

(2) The rectangle in red (0) shows the boundaries of a special map of Canton on a larger scale. 

(3) The other red lines mark out the territory shown In the respective stereographs. 

(4) The numbers in circles refer to stereographs correspondingly numbered. 

(5) The apex or point from which two lines branch out, Indicates the place from which the view was taken, viz., the place from which we look out, In the stereograph 

over the territory between the two lines. * 


indicate the limits of the stereographed scene, viz., the limits of our vision on the right and left when looking at the stereograph. 

2 


(6) The branching lines ( 

(7) The stereograph number without a circle Is placed at the end of each branching line (example^J<^^^ ) to help locate quickly the space shown In a stereograph. 

(8) Sometimes the encircled number is placed where it can be seen better and a zigzag line runs to the apex to which it refers. 











































































































MAP NO. 4 


References 


Parade Ground 
Pagoda 

British Consulate 
Prefect’s Yamen 
Treasurer’s Yamen 
City Temple 
Confuelan College 
Mosque 

Governor’s Yamen 

10 Temple of the 

Five Genii 

11 Confuelan College 
13 Rice Controller’s 

Yamen 

13 Examination Hall 

14 Cathedral 

15 Emperor’s Temple 

16 U. S. Consulate 

17 French Consulate.^ 



CAKTON 


1 MILE 


COPYRIGHT 1902, EY UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD. 


Patented U. S. A. y August ai, tqoo. Patented Great Britain , March a2, 1900. 

Patented France , March 26, 1900. S. G. D. G. Switzerland , 'O’ Patent Nr. 21,211. 

Patents applied/or in other countries. 

EXPLANATIONS OF MAP SYSTEM. 

(1) The red lines on this map mark out the territory shown in the respective stereographs, 

( 2 ) The numbers In circles refer to stereographs correspondingly numbered. 

( 3 ) The apex or point from which two tines branch out, Indicates the place from which the view was taken, viz., the place 

from which we look out, In the stereograph, over the territory between the two lines. 


( 4 ) The branching lines (« 


) Indicate the limits of the stereographed scene, viz., the limits of our vision on the right and left 

6 


) to help locate 


when looking at the stereograph. 

( 5 ) The stereograph number without a circle Is placed at the end of each branching line (example 
quickly the space shown In a stereograph. 

(6) Sometimes the encircled number Is placed where it can be seen better and a zigzag line runs to the apex to which It refers. 

( 7 ) When the field of view In the stereoscopic scene Is limited, Its location Is designated by the number of the stereograph In a 
circle without the branching lines. 








































































































































































MAP NO. 6 


45 


TAKU 

AND VICINITY 


0 i i J 1 MILE 



COPYRIGHT 1902, BY UNDERWOOD <5L UNDERWOO-'. 


b'« jRAV£D 3Y R.O.SERVOSS, N.Y. 


Patented U. S. AA ugust at, 1900. Patented Great Britain^ March 22, 1900. 

Patented France y March 26, X900. S. G. D. G. Switzerland , Patent Nr. 21,2x1. 

Patents appliedfor in other countries. 

EXPLANATIONS OF MAP SYSTEM. 

(1) The red lines on this map mark out the territory shown in the respective stereographs. 

(2) The numbers in circles refer to stereographs correspondingly numbered. 

(3) The apex ( or point from which two lines branch out, indicates the place from which the view was taken, viz., the plac. 

from which we look out, In the stereograph, over the territory be’ween the two lines. 

(4) The branching lines (Indicate the limits of tf 3 stereographed scene, viz., the limits of our vision on the right and left 
when looking at the stereograph. 

(5) The stereograph number without a circle Is placed af; the end of each branching line (example 
quickly the space shown In a stereograph. 


-^46 


) to help locate 
















































MAP NO. 7 


Mustard Temple (Buddhist) 

Widows Asylum 
; Mahometan Mosque 

City Garrison Headquarters 
Bight Regiment Headquarters 
Regiment Headquarters 
Sub prefeet’s Yamen 
Prefect’s Yamen 
Brigade General’s Headquarters 
Left Regiment Headquarters 
Hsiu-tsai College 
Octroi Station 

Treaty Temple and West Arsenal 
Vaccination Office 

• Salt Commissioner’s Yamen 

Jail 

District Magistrate’s Yamen 
Armory 

i Water and Moon Convent 
1 Dragon Hall 
River Police Headquarters 
: Memorial Temple 
Territoria Taotai’s Yamen 
Military Secretariat 

* Imperial Treasury 

. Convent (Buddhist) 

Official Examination Hall 
i Telegraph Office 
G'hu-jen-College 
1 Confucian Temple 
Official Residence 
Almshouse 

: Provisional Government Yamen 
Temple of Tien-che (Buddhist) 

' Foundling Hospital 
i Chechiang Tribute Rice Office 
Kiangsu Tribute Rice Office 


48 Customs Taotai’a Yamen 

49 Temple of tho Quer n of Heaven 

60 Temple of the Emperor of Heaven 

(Taoist) 

61 Imperial Travelling Lodge 

62 Military Head Middle Camp 

63 Military Right Camp 

64 Military Front Camp 

65 Military Middle Camp 
56 Ocean Tide Temple 

67 River Defense Camp 
58 Salt Inspector’s Office 
69 Hsiu-tsai-College 

60 College for Extra Provincial 

61 Temple to the God of Medicine 
6‘2 Temple to the God of War 

63 Medical College 

64 Anglo-Chinese School 

65 Telegraph College 

66 Naval Headquarters 

67 Imperial Military College 

68 Pei-yang Uuiversity 



B 

C 

D 

E 

F 

G 


ENGRAVED EY ft.D.SERVOSS, N.V. 


COPYRIGHT .1902, BY UNDERWOOD d UJ<DEQ#t©O0, 


patented U. S. A., A ugust 21, 1900. 


Patented France , March '26, 1900. S. G. D, G. 


Patented Great Britain, March 22, 1900. 


Switzerland, Q Patent Nr. 21,211. 


Patents applied /or in other countries. 


EXPLANATIONS 

(1) The red lines on this map mark out the territory shown In the respective stereographs. 

(2) The numbers In circles refer to stereographs correspondingly numbered. 

( 3 ) The apex ° r P oint from which two lines branch out, Indicates the place from which the view was taken, 

viz., the place from which we look out, In the stereograph, over the territory between the two lines. 

(4) The branching lines i Indicate the limits of the stereographed scene, viz., the limits of our vision on the 
right and left when looking at the stereograph. 


OF MAP SYSTEM. 

(5) The stereograph number without a circle Is frequently placed at the end of each branching line (example 

) to help locate quickly the space shown In a stereograph. 

( 6 ) Sometimes the encircled number Is placed where It can be seen better and a zigzag line runs to the apex to 
which It refers. 

(7) Where the field of view In a stereoscopic scene Is limited, Its location Is designated by the number of the 
stereograph In a circle without the branching lines. 































































































































































































































































MAP NO. 8 


CITY OF PEKIN: POSITION OF LEGATIONS. 


Great 
Bell Temple 



arp 

Id Temple 



Drill ground 


Tung Men 


'XCh'i Hw< 3Men 

emp/e- of 
Sun 


EAST 



n&Picn Men 

-72 


Tung Ting MSn 

SOUTH 

INDE 


C/>, <*ng Tsa 


British Logatiom 
IluBsian Legatiou. 

American Legation. 

German Legation. 

Spanish Legation. 

Japanese Legation. 

French Legation. 

Italian Legation. 

Belgian Legatiou. 

Entrance to the Forbidden City where the 

Empress-Dowager resided. 

Entrance to the Manchu from the C hinese 
City. 

Sir Robert Hart’s Residence. 


13 Island in the Forbidden City, where the 

Emperor was imprisoned. 

14 Temple of Agriculture, where the Emperor 

guides the plough once a year. 

15 Temple of Heaven. 

1G Yung-Tiug-Men, the southern gate of the 
Chinese City, through which the allied 
troops passed in I860. 

17 Godowns in which is stored the tribute 

rice of the Empire. 

18 Anglican Mission. 

19 Methodist Episcopal Mission. 

20 Lama Temple. 

21 Hanliu Library. 

22 Mongol Market. 


23 Imperial Carriage Park. 

24 Post Office. 

25 Korean Ambassy. 

20 Netherlands Legation. 

2 7 Austrian Legation. 

28 Roman Catholic Missions. 

29 Greek Church Mission. 

30 Presbyterian Mission. 

31 American Board Mission. 

32 London Mission. 

33 Christian Alliance Mission. 

34 Rev. Gilbert Reid’s Mission. 
45 Palace of Prince Ching. 

30 English Cemetery. 


37 Coufuciau Temple. 
The city is about 5 miles in length, north to south, and about 3 % miles in width, east to west. 


38 Mohammedan Mosque. 

39 Imperial Temple. 

40 Pai T a Ssu-Buddhist Temple. 

41 Hu Kuo Ssu-Buddhist Temple. 

42 Examination Halls. 

43 Gold Fish Ponds. 

44 Book Street. 

45 Foundling Hospital 

46 Soup Kitchen. 

47 Russian Cemetery. 

48 Drum Tower. 

49 Bell Tower. 

50 Foreign Stores. 

51 Mr. Murray’s Blind School. 

52 The Six Boards. 

53 Palace of Prince Su. 


OPYRlOHT 1»02, BY UNOERWOOO A UNDERWOOD. . 

Patented U. S. A., A ugnit 21, iqoo. Patented Great Britain, March 22, 1900. 

Patented France , March 26, iqoo. A. G. D. G. Switzerland , Q Patent Nr. 21,2x1. 

Patents applied for m other countries. 

EXPLANATIONS OF MAP SYSTEM. 

1 » o»rritorv shown In the respective stereographs. 

(,) The red lines on this map mark out the territory numbered. . out , n the stereograph, over the 

(2) The numbersln circles refer to “ t *"°» ra P'’ S ° ne / b ranch out, Indicates the place from which the view was taken, viz., the place from which ^ ' ook ° Ut ’ 

( 3 ) The apex (<^), or point from which two lines, » 

errltory between the two lines. _stenographed scene, viz., the limits of our vision on the right and left when looking •* th ® stere ° 9raPh 

(4) The branching lines (<J Indicate the limits 

(5) The stereograph number without a circle Is frequently P-aCed at the end of each branching line (example ^ help locate quick ^y 

. d where It can be seen better and a zigzag line runs to the apex to which It refers. branching lines. 

6 Sometimes the encircled number I. placet wh llmlte d (u „ ated by the number of the stereograph In a circle w »hOU* * h ® 

( 7 ) Where the field of view In the stereoscopic scene 

















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































jUL 


3l l9fl* 



31 1902 

















t copy nr i. to cut n?v. 

ML 


3 ! 1902 














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